Mathematician Alleges OpenAI Scooped His Proof After Hearing About His Work
In September 2026, NYU mathematician Tristan Buckmaster announced he was close to solving a major unsolved problem in mathematics called the Navier-Stokes equations. Hours before he could publish, OpenAI announced it had solved the problem using 10,000 AI agents working for 88 hours, costing millions of dollars in computing power. Buckmaster then accused OpenAI of scooping his work, claiming the company learned about his research through rumors and may have used training data containing his work. He alleges OpenAI even pressured him to remove a colleague from authorship. OpenAI denied directly using Buckmaster's work, saying it independently discovered the proof using different methods. Experts remain divided on whether the accusation has merit. The incident raises broader questions: as AI becomes essential for solving major mathematical problems, how will credit be assigned, and will the field remain open to researchers who lack billionaire-funded resources?
Key facts
- On September 8, 2026, OpenAI announced an AI solution to the Navier-Stokes problem, one of seven unsolved Millennium Prize Problems worth $1 million each
- OpenAI deployed roughly 10,000 AI agents working for 88 hours to solve the problem, costing millions of dollars in computing costs
- Tristan Buckmaster posted his own partial solution 12 hours before OpenAI's announcement, claiming he had been working on it for nearly a year with Levent Alpöge
- Buckmaster alleged OpenAI learned of his progress through rumors and may have trained its models on his work or user data from his OpenAI account
- OpenAI's Sébastien Bubeck acknowledged the company began work after hearing rumors about outside mathematicians' progress but denied directly accessing their unpublished work
- The Clay Mathematics Institute has not yet accepted OpenAI's proof and still lists the Navier-Stokes problem as open
How different outlets framed it
Left-leaning coverage: Left-leaning outlets stress the power imbalance and monopolistic behavior. They highlight how OpenAI, a wealthy corporation with massive computing resources, can out-maneuver individual researchers and potentially exploit publicly available knowledge and user data. The focus is on data ethics, labor concerns, and whether big tech is privatizing human knowledge while undermining academic collaboration norms.
Right-leaning coverage: Right-leaning and critical tech commentary views this as capitalism and competition working as intended, though with legitimate concerns about corporate behavior. Some argue OpenAI's aggressive resource deployment shows how market incentives drive rapid innovation. However, others criticize OpenAI for boosterism, hype-driven announcements, and overstatement of AI capabilities as a way to inflate company valuation ahead of potential IPO.
Limits of this briefing
The technical merit of OpenAI's proof remains unverified by independent expert review from the Clay Mathematics Institute, which officially recognizes solutions to Millennium Prize Problems. Additionally, the extent to which OpenAI's training data contained Buckmaster's research is unclear, as the company acknowledges using internet-sourced data but claims not to have directly accessed user-specific data.
Sources
- Washington Post: He was close to a huge math breakthrough. Then he got scooped by AI. Centre
- Scientific American: OpenAI claims blockbuster math breakthrough amid swirl of controversy Centre
- MIT Technology Review: What OpenAI's latest controversy tells us about the future of math Centre
- Gizmodo: The Fight Over OpenAI's Math Breakthrough Is a New Kind of Scientific Arms Race Left
- RT: OpenAI math breakthrough sparks controversy Right