A dispute over a million-dollar math problem is shaking the research world. This month, OpenAI declared that its AI had found a solution to the Navier-Stokes problem, a million-dollar question about how fluids flow. Tristan Buckmaster, a New York University professor, had released results on the simpler, related Euler equations the night before. He worked with Levent Alpöge, a mathematician at Anthropic, for almost a year. Buckmaster alleges that OpenAI learned of their progress and then adopted their method, which the company denies.
OpenAI says its solution came from about 10,000 AI agents working for 88 hours. It also says its researchers saw none of the pair's work before publication. The company has stated it will not claim the one-million-dollar prize. The Clay Mathematics Institute said the problem had apparently been settled but promised an unhurried review. Meanwhile, 25 Fields Medal winners, including Ngo Bao Chau, warned of a severe misalignment between AI companies and mathematics.