OpenAI claims to have solved the Navier-Stokes problem, a significant mathematical challenge that has remained unsolved for nearly a century. The company, known for ChatGPT, stated that an internal system, more powerful than its GPT-6 Astra model, tackled the problem. Around 10,000 AI agents reportedly worked simultaneously, reaching a solution in 88 hours.
The Navier-Stokes problem investigates whether equations describing fluid movement fail under specific conditions. OpenAI's proof suggests they do, indicating that fluid speeds can occasionally become infinitely high. The company's GPT-6 Astra model reportedly took about 17 hours to verify this solution.
However, the announcement has been met with controversy. Tristan Buckmaster, a professor at New York University, stated that OpenAI accelerated its work after learning he and another researcher at Anthropic were close to announcing their own breakthrough. Buckmaster also raised concerns that their work in progress was stored in OpenAI's Codex model, potentially making it accessible to the OpenAI team.
OpenAI researcher Sebastien Bubeck denied at a press briefing that the company used the pair's work or accessed material shared on OpenAI's servers. OpenAI's announcement acknowledged it could not rule out that data from the pair's use of their products "helped improve our models."
OpenAI stated it does not intend to claim the $1 million prize offered by the Clay Mathematics Institute for solving a Millennium Prize Problem. The company, which is preparing for a potential flotation, said a major goal of its work is to empower scientists and inform the world about AI progress.