On September 8, OpenAI announced its artificial intelligence agents had solved the Navier Stokes problem, a renowned and difficult mathematical challenge. This declaration sparked what some mathematicians call an existential crisis in their field, prompting concerns about AI's power and accusations that OpenAI misused human contributions. Had a human achieved this solution, they would have received significant recognition and financial reward.
Critiques against OpenAI center on the nature of large language models, which depend on human mathematicians' work. While OpenAI cited sources, many believe insufficient credit was given, particularly to individuals nearing a solution, seeing this as erasing human ingenuity. Mathematician Tristan Buckmaster also raised concerns his Navier Stokes work, developed using OpenAI's Codex model, might have been seen by the company. OpenAI denied direct access but acknowledged data from his product use could have improved their model.