OpenAI solves Millennium Prize problem: Victory or rivalry?

Over the past few years, OpenAI has steadily planted flags across increasingly complex terrain in mathematics. This week, the company claimed one of its biggest prizes yet by solving a legendary Millennium Prize problem—a feat that under normal circumstances would be celebrated as a historic achievement.

Instead, many mathematicians have watched this relentless advance with growing unease. To them, the company resembles an impossibly well-resourced interloper charging into lifelong studies with little regard for long-standing norms. At the heart of this discomfort is a pervasive sense that OpenAI is doing mathematics simply to win rather than to advance the academic field.

Stock photo for illustration only, not from the actual event

The Verge recently spoke with over a dozen mathematicians, including Tristan Buckmaster and Andreas Thom, who sit at the center of recent controversies. Experts describe a field deeply shaken by the tech giant's conduct and fearful of what aggressive maneuvers might follow next in its quest to trounce rivals.

The controversy ignited when OpenAI heard researchers were making headway on Millennium Prize problems and decided to test its advanced, unreleased model. Utilizing roughly 10,000 agents, tens of millions of dollars in compute, and just 88 hours, the system found a solution to the Navier-Stokes problem concerning fluid flows.