{
  "id": 6630737,
  "title": "A year of work by two Spanish mathematicians versus 88 hours and €15 million by OpenAI: ‘Without our idea, AI wouldn’t have solved it’",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/10/a-year-of-work-by-two-spanish-mathematicians-versus-88-hours-and-15",
  "topic": "ai",
  "section": "AI",
  "published": "2026-09-10T17:08:43.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "El Pais English",
    "slug": "el-pais-english",
    "url": "https://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2026-09-10/a-year-of-work-by-two-spanish-mathematicians-versus-88-hours-and-15-million-by-openai-without-our-idea-ai-wouldnt-have-solved-it.html"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Spanish mathematicians Diego Córdoba and Luis Martínez-Zorúa spent a year developing a method that could solve the Navier–Stokes equation, one of the seven Millennium Problems, for which OpenAI's AI model then used brute force to complete the task. OpenAI reportedly consumed around €15 million worth of computational resources (equivalent to approximately 10,000 agents over 88 hours) to solve the problem, while Córdoba and Martínez-Zorúa completed the work in just one year using their own resources. OpenAI contacted the mathematicians on Sunday, suggesting they publish the result jointly or publish it themselves with attribution to an OpenAI model. The mathematicians were unaware of OpenAI's involvement until then, despite often collaborating at conferences. OpenAI's approach involved automating the search phase of the method rather than simply tuning the scenario themselves. The mathematicians expressed skepticism about the extent to which the AI contributed to the solution, emphasizing that it primarily \"bought time\" rather than generating entirely new ideas. They also raised concerns about the implications for mathematical research, noting that if AI can solve such complex problems with little effort, researchers may be less motivated to publish their findings.",
  "summary": "Diego Córdoba and Luis Martínez‑Zoroa’s research is the foundation of the announcement that artificial intelligence has solved one of the greatest enigmas in history. Both believe the achievement will radically change the discipline",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}