GoKawiilOpenAI's Navier-Stokes proof draws authorship dispute with NYU mathematician
NYU's Buckmaster and his collaborator Alpöge published a proof that a simplified version of the Navier-Stokes equations can break down, after nearly a year of work using public AI models. Hours later, OpenAI released its own proof covering the full equations using an unreleased internal model, but Buckmaster alleges OpenAI tried to pressure him into excluding his co-author, who works at Anthropic, and dodged questions about whether their models were trained on his private work transcripts.
GoKawiil's interpretation of the reporting above, not reported fact.
The episode raises uncomfortable questions about whether AI labs are quietly absorbing researchers' unpublished work through model interactions, then racing to publish similar results first. It also shows how commercial rivalries between AI labs are now entangled with academic credit and mathematical discovery, complicating trust in AI-assisted research.
- Two independent teams produced Navier-Stokes breakthroughs within a day of each other, raising suspicion of information leakage.
- Buckmaster claims OpenAI offered to exclude his Anthropic-affiliated collaborator from credit.
- OpenAI has not clearly denied training its models on transcripts of the researchers' private work.
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Published there as: “What OpenAI’s latest controversy tells us about the future of math”
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