Mathematician Tristan Buckmaster has accused OpenAI of learning about his collaborative work with Anthropic researcher Levent Alpöge on the Navier-Stokes equations and using that information to solve the problem with an internal AI model. The Navier-Stokes equations are one of the seven Millennium Prize Problems, with a $1 million prize for a solution.
Buckmaster alleges that after OpenAI learned of his research, he was told by an OpenAI staff member that their model had produced a proof. He claims he was pressured to publish the findings while removing Alpöge, who works for competitor Anthropic, from authorship. Buckmaster refused and published his and Alpöge's partial results independently on September 8, 2026, along with his allegations. OpenAI has not yet issued a formal, detailed response to the specific claims, though an employee has called them "false and inflammatory."