NYU's Tristan Buckmaster alleges OpenAI produced competing Navier Stokes result
NYU mathematics professor Tristan Buckmaster says he is raising concerns about OpenAI for what he describes as unfair practices in a recent breakthrough on a tough math problem.
Buckmaster and Anthropic mathematician Levent Alpoge used AI tools like Codex and Claude to make headway on the Navier-Stokes problem, sharing their results on September 8, 2026.
Buckmaster says OpenAI caught wind of their approach and quickly used its own resources to produce a competing result.
Buckmaster suggests Codex use, Bubeck denies
Buckmaster also claims that OpenAI only started exploring this method after learning about his team's progress. He suggests they may have even used data from Codex user inputs.
He says Sebastian Bubeck from OpenAI tried to talk him out of going public, warning it could hurt his career. Bubeck has called these allegations "false and inflammatory."
The whole episode has sparked fresh debate about ethics and transparency when it comes to big discoveries made with AI.