OpenAI announced the proof to one of math’s great outstanding questions — although not without drama.
The Navier-Stokes equations describe fluid flow, from “your bathtub’s drain to… El Niño,” Scientific American wrote, but two centuries on, scientists don’t know whether they always work.
Answering that question would win a $1 million Millennium Prize Problem; OpenAI deployed around 10,000 agents of an as-yet unreleased powerful model on Aug. 28, and solved it within 88 hours, proving that the equations sometimes break down under extreme conditions.
Earlier, two mathematicians rushed out work solving crucial sub-questions, with one, Tristan Buckmaster, accusing OpenAI of muscling in on their work. The firm denied the claim. Still, AI’s math progress represents “a Deep Blue-Kasparov moment,” Buckmaster wrote.