OpenAI maths bombshell sparks debate about who gets credit in age of AI

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Bluesky Facebook LinkedIn Reddit Whatsapp X Save article View saved research Mathematicians give credit for insights gleaned through discussion, but AI tools are not set up to do this. Credit: Hill Street Studios/Getty

OpenAI’s announcement that it used an artificial-intelligence model to solve a major puzzle in fluid dynamics — the Navier–Stokes problem — is likely to change how mathematics is done forever. The claim, made by the AI company in San Francisco, California, on 8 September, has also sparked controversy about whether OpenAI tools have learnt information from human mathematicians who were also racing to solve the problem using AI tools.

The widespread use of AI models across most fields of research, and the difficulty of tracing the origin of the information used to train models, could put the very notion of scholarly credit into jeopardy, researchers warn.