OpenAI Just Claimed a Huge Math Discovery. Some Academics Are Crying Foul
A landmark announcement by the frontier AI lab has been overshadowed by accusations of impropriety.
OpenAI has recently claimed a significant mathematical breakthrough, but the news has been met with skepticism from fellow mathematicians. Tristan Buckmaster, a mathematician from NYU, and Levent Alpöge, a researcher from Anthropic, contend that OpenAI's claim is premature and that they had been working on a related mathematical problem using AI.
According to Buckmaster, OpenAI learned about their progress and started dedicating resources to the Navier-Stokes equation, a Millennium Prize problem, before they even began their work. OpenAI's head of research, Mark Chen, has confirmed that the company spent millions of dollars on compute resources to solve the problem. However, Buckmaster claims he learned about OpenAI's work after he shared his and Alpöge's progress with OpenAI leaders.
OpenAI has denied these allegations, stating that they did not view any of Buckmaster and Alpöge's work until it was made public. The company has emphasized that their solution was unique and distinct from the pair's work. This dispute over credit for solving one of the most challenging mathematical problems could escalate, especially as AI becomes more involved in the process of finding proofs.
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