OpenAI's Navier-Stokes solution sparks credit controversy and worries about math's future

OpenAI announced its agents solved the Navier-Stokes existence and smoothness problem, one of seven Millennium Prize Problems. However, the achievement is overshadowed by accusations that OpenAI used work by NYU mathematician Tristan Buckmaster and Anthropic employee Levent Alpöge without proper credit. OpenAI denies the claims. The solution required running about 10,000 agents concurrently at a cost of millions of dollars, raising concerns about mathematics becoming dominated by well-resourced AI companies.

Mathematics is quickly becoming the province of frontier AI companies with impressive internal-only models, money to burn, and a lack of collaborative spirit.