OpenAI's Navier-Stokes Solution Sparks Controversy in Academia

OpenAI announced that the Navier-Stokes Millennium Prize problem was solved through the 88-hour work of approximately 10,000 AI agents. This development triggered a major controversy in the scientific world with allegations of academic norms being violated and ideas being stolen.

Navier-Stokes Solution and Process

OpenAI publicly announced on Tuesday that an unreleased model solved the Navier-Stokes Millennium Prize problem.

A system consisting of approximately 10,000 AI agents managed to solve this complex mathematical problem in just a short span of 88 hours.

Allegations from Academics

Tristan Buckmaster, a mathematics professor at New York University, claimed that while he and Anthropic researcher Levent Alpöge were working on a similar problem, OpenAI rapidly took over the process.

Buckmaster alleged that when he mentioned sharing the situation publicly, he was threatened with the destruction of his career by an OpenAI researcher.

OpenAI's Response to the Allegations

OpenAI stated that neither its researchers nor its AI agents had seen the mathematicians' work in advance, denying the use of private user data.

The company acknowledged, however, that it could not entirely rule out the possibility that anonymized data derived from product usage might have indirectly improved the models.

Twitter Rumors and Statements

OpenAI researcher Sébastien Bubeck stated that the company began working on the problem after hearing rumors on Twitter.

Bubeck expressed that they only realized later that the rumors in question were related to Alpöge and Buckmaster.

Crisis of Trust in the Academic World

This incident caused shock and alienation in the academic community, which relies on informal norms of trust and openness.

Academics from numerous universities expressed concerns that the aggressive tactics of AI labs could force researchers to become more secretive.