OpenAI's unreleased model solves 90-year-old maths problem in 88 hours
What's the story
OpenAI has announced a major breakthrough in solving a complex mathematical problem that has remained unsolved for nearly a century. The company achieved this feat using its new and unreleased artificial intelligence (AI) model and thousands of AI bots, all working together. The problem was part of the Navier-Stokes equations, which deal with fluid motion. Despite its importance, key aspects of the problem had remained unproven for 90 years.
AI breakthrough
OpenAI's new model and the solution timeline
OpenAI's new model, which is "significantly more capable" than its most recent AI model release, started to train at the end of August.
The company said that it quickly proved its mathematical prowess.
On September 1, after hearing rumors of two Millennium Prize problems being solved, OpenAI deployed thousands of bots trained on this internal model to tackle some remaining problems.
By September 5, they had cracked the Navier-Stokes existence and smoothness problem in just 88 hours.
Partial success
Two out of 4 statements resolved
OpenAI's solution for the Navier-Stokes existence and smoothness problem has resolved two out of the four statements in the proof that the Millennium Prize had demanded.
The prize, which is worth $1 million, is awarded to those who solve certain mathematical problems.
However, it's worth noting that OpenAI's solution has yet to be independently verified or publicly accepted by The Clay Mathematics Institute, the US-based organization which runs the Millennium Prize.
Resource consumption
Costly endeavor for OpenAI
Despite the quick turnaround, OpenAI's AI bots exchanged nearly three million messages and used up 130 billion output tokens on Navier-Stokes alone.
This effort would have cost around $10 million, based on OpenAI's pricing for output from its most advanced models.
The company has clarified that it does not intend to claim the Millennium Prize for this result but rather wants to highlight the significant progress of its AI models.
Dispute
Controversy surrounding the solution
The announcement has sparked some controversy, with NYU mathematics professor Tristan Buckmaster claiming he and Anthropic mathematician Levent Alpoge were also working toward solutions for the same problem.
Buckmaster alleged that "information about our progress had been passed to OpenAI," and accused the company of starting its own work on the Navier-Stokes equations after learning about theirs.
OpenAI has denied these allegations, stating it had not seen their work until it was publicly released.