OpenAI Claims AI Solved Navier-Stokes Millennium Problem Amid Credit Allegations

OpenAI says an unreleased AI model solved the Navier–Stokes existence and smoothness problem, one of seven Millennium Prize Problems concerning whether fluid equations can develop singularities, or “blow up,” under extreme conditions. The company said roughly 10,000 AI agents worked for 88 hours, with another model verifying the proposed proof; if mathematicians validate it, the result would be only the second Millennium problem solved and the first attributed to AI. The equations underpin research into weather, turbulence, aircraft design, ocean currents and blood flow, although the mathematical result would not mean physical laws literally fail. The claim and proof have not been independently validated and must undergo public release, peer review and extensive scrutiny before the Clay Mathematics Institute could consider awarding its $1 million prize. The announcement also prompted allegations from New York University mathematician Tristan Buckmaster that OpenAI accelerated its work after learning of related research he conducted with Anthropic researcher Levent Alpöge and may have used or failed to credit their work; OpenAI denies accessing the research and calls the plagiarism allegations false.