The partial list coloring conjecture asserted that if a graph 
on 
vertices has choice number 
,
then every assignment of lists of size 
permits a proper
coloring of at least 
vertices (Albertson et
al. 2000). Noel (2026) disproved the conjecture
by constructing a 14-vertex graph
of choice number 3 with a 2-list assignment from
which at most 9 vertices can be properly
colored.
Noel (2026) reports that ChatGPT 6 Astra Ultra discovered and fully verified the counterexample, subsequently found the human-checkable proof after persistent prompting but almost no mathematical input from the author. The author fully checked the arguments and assumes responsibility for their correctness.
