OpenAI says AI solved decades-old Navier-Stokes problem in 88 hours

A problem that mathematicians have struggled with for decades has reportedly been tackled by artificial intelligence in just 88 hours. OpenAI says its model generated a new proof for the Navier-Stokes problem, one of seven major unsolved challenges in mathematics.

The company announced the result on its official blog on the 8th, local time. OpenAI said it deployed 10,000 AI agents simultaneously and used 130 billion tokens before producing the final proof after roughly 88 hours.

The system used for the effort was an in-house model that OpenAI said performed better than its recently released GPT-6 Astra. The article describes the result as a proposed solution, rather than presenting independent confirmation of the proof.

The Navier-Stokes equations describe how fluids such as water and air move. They are used to explain phenomena ranging from airflow around aircraft to weather and ocean currents. Although the equations were developed in the 19th century, the unresolved three-dimensional question asks whether solutions always remain smooth.