NYU mathematician accuses OpenAI of dirty tactics in $1 million math race

NYU mathematician Tristan Buckmaster announced three proofs on Monday related to the Navier-Stokes existence and smoothness problem, a $1 million Millennium Prize challenge, while accusing OpenAI of using leaked information about his work to pursue the same solution. Buckmaster, collaborating with Anthropic mathematician Levent Alpöge, claims OpenAI learned of their progress, then launched a massive compute effort to produce a competing proof. He alleges OpenAI pressured him to remove Alpöge’s credit and threatened his career, while OpenAI’s Sebastian Bubeck denies the accusations as “false and inflammatory.” The dispute highlights concerns about AI’s role in research, including whether OpenAI trained models on Buckmaster’s Codex interactions. Buckmaster released his statement to ensure public transparency, saying he is stating what he was told rather than making accusations.