OpenAI says AI solved Navier-Stokes problem

OpenAI said Tuesday that an unreleased artificial intelligence model solved the Navier-Stokes problem in days, a claim that would answer one of mathematics' Millennium Prize Problems if confirmed.

The Navier-Stokes problem concerns equations describing how fluids such as air and water move. The equations are used in aircraft design, weather forecasting and the study of blood flow.

OpenAI said the work showed that the equations can break down over time, answering the question set out by the Clay Mathematics Institute. Each Millennium Prize Problem carries a $1 million reward, and OpenAI said it would not claim the money if its finding is confirmed.

OpenAI said it began training a new model in late August and later directed it at the six remaining open Millennium Prize Problems after seeing online rumours that a competitor had solved some of them. OpenAI researcher Sebastien Bubeck said 10,000 AI agents worked on Navier-Stokes at the final stage, passing messages between one another. Chief research officer Mark Chen said computing costs ran in the millions of dollars.

The announcement came hours after Tristan Buckmaster, a mathematician at New York University, and Levent Alpoge, who works at OpenAI rival Anthropic, released AI-assisted work on three related equations. Buckmaster said OpenAI took up the problem only after word of his research spread and pursued an unusual approach he and Alpoge had spent months developing.

OpenAI researchers denied having access to the rival team's work. Bubeck said OpenAI did not use their prompts or proofs to direct its models or agents.