OpenAI agents claim Navier-Stokes Millennium Prize proof amid dispute

An OpenAI multi-agent system, running roughly 10,000 concurrent agents on an internal model described as significantly more capable than GPT-6 Astra, produced and Lean-verified a proof that three-dimensional Navier-Stokes equations develop a finite-time singularity. Agents were launched September 1, 2026; the proof was completed approximately 88 hours later on September 5, with Lean formalization taking an additional 17 hours. The result is disputed by mathematicians Tristan Buckmaster (NYU) and Levent Alpöge (Anthropic), who had independently achieved a Lean-verified proof for the related 3D Euler equations by August 22 and had been working on the broader problem for nearly a year before OpenAI launched its effort. They raise the possibility that OpenAI's effort benefited from knowledge of their unpublished work. Mathematician Terence Tao has separately argued that AI systems racing to solve open problems upon hearing rumors of ongoing research may push mathematicians toward secrecy, threatening open science traditions.