OpenAI claims to have solved maths problem that stumped humans for decades

OpenAI claims to have solved maths problem that stumped humans for decades. Photograph: Dado Ruvić/ReutersOpenAI claims to have solved maths problem that stumped humans for decadesCompany behind ChatGPT says 10,000 of its AI systems cracked the Navier-Stokes problem in 88 hoursOpenAI claims to have solved a major mathematics problem that has stumped humans for nearly a century after spending millions of dollars on the artificial intelligence-led endeavour.

What happened

Company behind ChatGPT says 10,000 of its AI systems cracked the Navier-Stokes problem in 88 hoursOpenAI claims to have solved a major mathematics problem that has stumped humans for nearly a century after spending millions of dollars on the artificial intelligence-led endeavour. The company behind ChatGPT said it had cracked the Navier-Stokes problem, one of seven Millennium Prize Problems published by the Clay Mathematics Institute to highlight some of the biggest unsolved puzzles in the field. Continue reading. . .

ByKali HaysTechnology reporterPublished4 hours agoOpenAI says it has found a solution to a decades-old advanced maths problem in a matter of hours using a new artificial intelligence (AI) model and thousands of AI bots. OpenAI’s announcement on the breakthrough gave more details, saying that the company was inspired to launch the effort after hearing rumours that two Millennium Prize Problems had been solved. In May, OpenAI claimed progress in another mathematical problem first proposed 80 years ago, while Google DeepMind has also claimed maths achievements with its models.

The ChatGPT-maker said on Tuesday, external that by focusing a group of roughly 10,000 AI agents, or AI bots that undertake tasks somewhat autonomously, it solved a notoriously difficult maths problem in just 88 hours. While the new OpenAI model remains a tool only used within the company, as it is "significantly more capable" than the company's most recent AI model release, its researchers decided to use it on certain notable advanced maths problems. OpenAI admitted that last week on 1 September, it had "heard rumors that two Millennium Prize problems had been resolved" and so decided to put thousands of AI bots trained on the new internal model to work attempting to solve some of the remaining problems.

The wider picture

The solution that OpenAI says it has now reached for the Navier–Stokes existence and smoothness problem resolved two out of the four statements in the proof that the Millennium Prize had demanded. The company behind ChatGPT said it had cracked the Navier-Stokes problem, one of seven Millennium Prize Problems published by the Clay Mathematics Institute to highlight some of the biggest unsolved puzzles in the field. However, the announcement swiftly became mired in controversy after mathematician Tristan Buckmaster, a professor at New York University, said OpenAI accelerated its work on the problem after hearing that he and another researcher at Anthropic, an OpenAI rival, were poised to announce their own breakthrough.

It also said it could not rule out that data from the pair’s use of their products “helped improve our models. ”OpenAI said it tackled the Navier-Stokes problem with an internal OpenAI system that was more powerful than its latest GPT-6 Astra model. The clash with Buckmaster aside, the maths announcement also allows OpenAI to cast its technology in a positive light after a period of alarm over how safely it is being developed.

OpenAI's solution has yet to be verified independently or publicly accepted by The Clay Mathematics Institute, a maths organization based in the US which runs the Millennium Prize that offers big money to the first to solve certain mathematical conundrums. By Sept 5, or roughly 88 hours after it had set 10,000 AI bots to the task, OpenAI had found a solution to what's referred to as the Navier–Stokes existence and smoothness problem. Tristan Buckmaster, a mathematics professor at New York University, said on Tuesday, external that he and Levent Alpöge, a mathematician working for OpenAI rival Anthropic, had also been working toward solutions for the problem.

What has been reported

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Skip to main contentSkip to navigation OpenAI denied that the company had used work from rivals to solve the notoriously difficult puzzle. Photograph: Dado Ruvić/ReutersView image in fullscreenOpenAI denied that the company had used work from rivals to solve the notoriously difficult puzzle. Buckmaster had further concerns because the pair’s work in progress was stored in OpenAI’s Codex model, which is used for writing computer programs, potentially making the work visible to the OpenAI team.

I am not accusing anyone of anything. ”At a press briefing on Tuesday, OpenAI researcher Sebastien Bubeck denied that the company had used the pair’s work or accessed material shared with OpenAI’s servers. About 10,000 AI agents – AI systems that carry out tasks autonomously – worked on the problem at once and reached the solution in 88 hours.

What happens next

“A major goal of our work is to empower scientists to advance research and technology that benefits all of humanity,” OpenAI researchers wrote in a blog. Bubeck said the solution to the Navier-Stokes problem was “a spectacular culmination of the arc we have seen over the past 12 months”. The Navier-Stokes problem asks whether equations that are used to describe the movement of fluids like air and water fail under particular conditions. OpenAI’s proof suggests that they do, with the equations occasionally “blowing up” with the speed of fluids becoming impossibly infinite.

It took OpenAI’s GPT-6 Astra about 17 hours to verify the solution. Mathematicians who solve any of the Millennium Prize Problems are in line for a $1m (£740,000) reward from the Clay Mathematics Institute. OpenAI, which is preparing for a flotation that could value the business at around $1tn, said it did not intend to claim the prize.

The report has been compiled by The Daily Waves using information reported across theguardian.com, bbc.co.uk. Details are presented according to the information available at the time of publication and may change as authorities, organisers or other relevant parties provide updates.