OpenAI claims solution to $1 million Navier-Stokes math problem

OpenAI has announced that its latest AI models have solved the Navier-Stokes existence and smoothness problem, one of the seven Millennium Prize Problems carrying a $1 million reward. The solution was achieved through an autonomous collective of approximately 10,000 AI agents at an estimated cost of $15 million.

The announcement has sparked significant controversy within the mathematical community regarding scientific attribution and data ethics. Mathematicians Tristan Buckmaster and Levent Alpöge claim they were close to a breakthrough when OpenAI staff informed them that their internal models had already achieved a solution. Buckmaster alleged that OpenAI attempted to exclude Alpöge from authorship due to his employment at competitor Anthropic.

While OpenAI stated it did not access specific user data to solve the problem, it acknowledged that anonymized data from product usage may have contributed to model improvements. Mathematicians have expressed concerns that the rapid pace of AI-driven discovery may shift the profession toward an “auditor” role, focused on verifying AI-generated proofs rather than original research.