OpenAI Claims $1 Million Navier-Stokes Breakthrough in Under 1 Week, Beating Tristan Buckmaster
Updated
Updated · The New York Times · Sep 10
OpenAI Claims $1 Million Navier-Stokes Breakthrough in Under 1 Week, Beating Tristan Buckmaster
3 articles · Updated · The New York Times · Sep 10
Summary
Tuesday's announcement said OpenAI had solved the Navier-Stokes Millennium Prize problem in less than a week, overtaking NYU mathematician Tristan Buckmaster and other human researchers.
Rumors that Anthropic had already cracked one or two Millennium Prize problems pushed OpenAI to target the same list, which offers $1 million for a proof that survives formal review.
Wednesday evening, OpenAI said it was "categorically" impossible that its AI system had been influenced by Buckmaster's work from the past two months, after online accusations that it had absorbed his recent approach.
Buckmaster and another mathematician had made significant progress through August, turning the result into a flashpoint over whether frontier AI labs can outpace — or unfairly preempt — academic researchers.