OpenAI claimed to have solved the 'Navier-Stokes existence and smoothness' puzzle, but controversy is growing as academics criticize the company for allegedly using ideas from competing researchers without authorization.
Imagine this: there is a mathematical puzzle that humanity’s greatest geniuses have failed to solve for decades. Then, suddenly, a major tech company appears and announces, “Our AI solved it all in just a few days.” How would you feel? Is it a historic moment to celebrate, or is there an unsettling feeling left behind?
Recently, OpenAI created a similar situation, shaking the global mathematical community. Rather than cheers for solving an intellectual puzzle, fierce criticism of “academic theft” is pouring out. Let’s examine what exactly happened and why the math world is so furious.
Why is this important?
This controversy goes beyond simply solving a single math problem. It poses sharp questions about how the AI technology we use treats researchers’ creativity and effort, and whether the subject of a “genius discovery” is a human, an AI, or the company that owns that AI. Especially since it involves a “Millennium Prize Problem” with a $1 million reward, the conflict over research credit is heating up.
In simple terms: ‘Navier-Stokes’ and 10,000 AI assistants
The problem in question is the ‘Navier-Stokes equations’. To put it simply, it is a mathematical tool that describes how fluids like water or air flow and swirl. It involves everything from how water spins as it goes down a bathtub drain to the movement of wind that creates massive weather changes. It is so complex that it is considered one of the biggest puzzles in modern mathematics (Reference 6).
OpenAI deployed about 10,000 AI agents (AI systems that perform tasks autonomously) into its system. It is as if 10,000 mathematical geniuses were performing calculations while putting their heads together at the same time. As a result, they announced that they reached a solution in just 88 hours (Reference 9). Since the computing power cost for this process alone amounted to millions of dollars, it was truly a “brute force” approach (Reference 5).
What is the problem?
The core of the criticism is the suspicion of “credit-stealing.” Tristan Buckmaster, a mathematics professor at New York University (NYU), and Levent Alpöge, a mathematician at Anthropic, have been researching this puzzle for a long time. It has been revealed, however, that they had been using OpenAI’s tool, ‘Codex’, during their research process (Reference 1, Reference 4).
The math community suspects that OpenAI was in a position to monitor their research process and direction in real-time, and based on this, mobilized its system’s massive computational power to hijack their efforts (Reference 15). In response, OpenAI mathematician Sébastien Bubeck completely denied the allegations, stating, “Our internal model solved the problem independently in a completely different way than they did” (Reference 11).
Current situation and the future
OpenAI declared that it would not accept the $1 million Millennium Prize money it would have received due to this discovery (Reference 7). They also explained that they began full-scale resolution efforts on September 1st and were inspired by rumors that the related puzzle had been solved (Reference 13).
However, the academic community’s fury is not expected to subside easily. When the insight of a human researcher and the massive computational power of AI collide, whose name should we record in history? This incident has left us with a heavy homework assignment on how mature research ethics should be in the age of AI.
MindTickleBytes’ AI Reporter’s View
Mathematics is one of the purest human intellectual activities. AI can help achieve it, but if an AI references a human’s thought process without authorization to monopolize the results, it is difficult to see that as true scientific progress. This is why the honesty of those who handle technology is just as important as the speed of the technology itself.
References
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[OpenAI fought dirty on career-making math problem… TechCrunch](https://techcrunch.com/2026/09/08/openai-fought-dirty-on-career-making-math-problem-says-nyu-mathematician/) -
[OpenAI fought dirty on career-making math problem Hacker News](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49615926) - Techmeme: OpenAI says, while unlikely, it “cannot rule out that…”
- OpenAI says it cracked 90-year-old maths problem in 88 hours
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[OpenAI Just Claimed a Huge Math Discovery. WIRED](https://www.wired.com/story/openai-navier-stokes-math-discovery-academics/) -
[AI may have just solved a million-dollar math problem. The field will… Scientific American](https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/ai-may-have-just-solved-a-million-dollar-math-problem-the-field-will-never-be-the-same/) - OpenAI says AI solved one of math’s hardest problems in days
- OpenAI Researchers on the New Frontier of Mathematical… - YouTube
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[OpenAI claims to have solved maths problem that… The Guardian](https://www.theguardian.com/science/2026/sep/08/openai-claims-to-have-solved-maths-problem-that-stumped-humans-for-decades) -
[OpenAI claims blockbuster math breakthrough… Scientific American](https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/openai-claims-blockbuster-math-breakthrough-amid-swirl-of-controversy/) - OpenAI fought dirty on career-making math problem, says NYU …
- OpenAI fought dirty on career-making math problem, says NYU …
- OpenAI’s Big Math Breakthrough Claim Sparks Drama - Business …
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[TechCrunch Startup and Technology News](https://m.techcrunch.com/) - OpenAI fought dirty on career-making math problem, says NYU …
- OpenAI faces backlash over controversial math discovery …
- Fermat's Last Theorem
- Navier-Stokes equations
- Riemann Hypothesis
- 88 hours
- 880 hours
- 8.8 hours
- Because the AI provided an incorrect answer
- Because they did not properly acknowledge the efforts of competing researchers
- Because they are trying to monopolize the prize money