Science & Tech · AI · 1 hr ago
Altman says mathematicians are adapting to AI after OpenAI’s Navier-Stokes claim
OpenAI said in September that its AI had solved the Navier-Stokes problem, a famous challenge about equations describing how fluids flow.
The problem is one of seven Millennium Prize Problems, each carrying a $1 million award for a solution accepted by the Clay Mathematics Institute.
Mathematicians questioned how the result was produced and whether the AI showed enough work to verify it, while two academics accused OpenAI of using their chat data; the company’s claim has not meant the prize was awarded.
A later account said OpenAI’s internal model reached the right answer, but followed a path that even the company’s mathematicians did not initially recognize.
Sam Altman says mathematicians are starting to adapt, with some expecting different kinds of careers rather than the end of the field.
Some researchers warn that AI could change how mathematics is done, shifting more work toward checking machine-generated results.
The debate matters because AI systems are producing important scientific work while their methods can remain difficult to inspect, and mathematicians are still working to understand the proof.
Sam Altman said mathematicians are adapting to artificial intelligence after OpenAI’s claims about solving major mathematical problems.
OpenAI said its models had solved the Navier-Stokes problem, one of the Clay Mathematics Institute’s seven Millennium Prize Problems.
The claims triggered controversy, including concerns that the AI did not show its work and allegations that OpenAI used researchers’ chat data.
Mathematician Terence Tao said the field’s “romantic era” is over as researchers increasingly verify AI-generated work.
OpenAI later said it had solved more than 700 additional problems, while a student math competition using AI drew criticism from academics.
- Who
- OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and mathematicians responding to AI breakthroughs.
- What
- Altman said mathematicians are adapting to AI after OpenAI claimed its models solved major mathematical problems, including Navier-Stokes.
- When
- Altman spoke at a recent Stanford talk reported on October 22, 2026. OpenAI’s Navier-Stokes claim came in September.
- Where
- Stanford, where Altman spoke; the dispute concerns the mathematics community.
- Why
- OpenAI’s claims and the use of AI in mathematical research have raised questions about the field’s future, the verification of AI work and researchers’ data.
OpenAI and AI optimists
Critics in the mathematics community
Mathematicians’ careers
OpenAI and AI optimists
Altman said mathematicians are moving toward different, hopefully better careers and rejected the prospect of a job apocalypse.
Critics in the mathematics community
Critics described the changes as an existential transformation, and Tao said some things are being lost.
AI-generated results
OpenAI and AI optimists
Altman described AI as having an inalienable role in mathematics.
Critics in the mathematics community
Critics said the model did not show its work, making verification difficult, and some academics denounced an AI math competition as promoting “slop.
Use of researchers’ work
OpenAI and AI optimists
OpenAI claimed its models had solved Navier-Stokes.
Critics in the mathematics community
Two academics accused OpenAI of using data from their chat logs to help solve the problem.
OpenAI claimed to have solved the Navier-Stokes problem, according to Scientific American.
Mathematicians criticized the claim, including over the model’s failure to show its work.
OpenAI said it had solved more than 700 additional problems, according to Business Insider.
Altman said at a Stanford talk that mathematicians were coming around to AI’s role in the field.
The AI math competition, after rule changes, was set to take place.
- Navier-Stokes
- One of the Clay Mathematics Institute’s seven Millennium Prize Problems
- Prize
- $1 million for a proof establishing the problem’s proposed flaw
- OpenAI claim
- The company said its models solved Navier-Stokes in September
- Additional problems
- OpenAI said it solved more than 700
- Math competition
- More than 700 academics signed an open letter denouncing it
3 sources
What people are saying
We've now seen a lot of people say, actually, I'm going to have a different but hopefully better kind of career as a mathematician
That was the fastest that I think we've all gotten to watch a field go through this cycle
Some things are being lost
I fear a world in which corporations are the only ones with claim to the deepest pure math work