OpenAI claims solution to one of mathematics’ biggest problems after AI worked for 88 hours
OpenAI says its experimental artificial intelligence system has found a solution to the Navier–Stokes problem, one of the seven famous Millennium Prize Problems. The mathematical question has remained unresolved for around 90 years and concerns the equations used to describe the motion of fluids and gases.
To search for a proof, OpenAI reportedly used a system of roughly 10,000 AI agents working in parallel. The agents reached the result after about 88 hours, followed by another 17 hours of formal verification using GPT-6 Astra and the Lean proof system.
AI generated around 130 billion output tokens
According to OpenAI, the agents exchanged approximately 2.7 million messages and generated around 130 billion output tokens while working directly on the Navier–Stokes problem.
The proposed proof shows that under certain conditions, initially smooth fluid flow can develop a singularity in finite time, meaning the mathematical solution ceases to remain smooth. Navier–Stokes equations are fundamental to fields including aerodynamics, weather forecasting, water-flow modelling and research into blood circulation.
OpenAI has published both the mathematical paper and a formalized proof, but the company says it does not plan to claim the $1 million prize. Independent evaluation by the mathematical community is still underway, so the result is more accurately described as a claimed solution rather than a definitively confirmed resolution of the Millennium Prize Problem.
