Million-dollar question: OpenAI claims to have an answer to 90-year old maths problem
OpenAI has revealed that its advanced AI model has found a solution to a complex math problem that has persisted for 90 years. This monumental task in fluid dynamics was accomplished in just 88 hours, employing nearly ten thousand AI agents during the process. Nevertheless, the achievement is pending validation by independent mathematicians, with OpenAI emphasizing that their intention was to…
OpenAI has claimed to have solved a 90-year-old mathematical problem in just 88 hours using an advanced AI model and a network of 10,000 AI agents. The Navier–Stokes existence and smoothness problem, which deals with fluid dynamics, is one of mathematics' most significant unsolved challenges. OpenAI announced the result on Tuesday, emphasizing it as a significant milestone in AI development.
However, the claim has not been independently verified nor accepted by the Clay Mathematics Institute, which offers a $1 million prize for resolving the problem.
AI agents operated continuously, exchanging nearly 3 million messages and generating 130 billion output tokens while tackling the problem. OpenAI estimates that running such an extensive effort would have cost around $10 million based on its pricing. The company emphasized that the solution only addressed two of the four necessary statements for a complete proof, distinguishing their approach from that of mathematicians Tristan Buckmaster and Levent Alpöge who were also working on the problem.
OpenAI denied having seen Alpöge and Buckmaster's work prior to their public release. Despite calling it a major milestone, OpenAI is not claiming the $1 million prize, as the full proof needs to undergo independent scrutiny before its significance can be fully established.
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