Sam Altman's statement on the Navier-Stokes dispute
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman addressed a public dispute regarding the alleged solution to the Navier-Stokes millennium problem. Altman defended his team's integrity, stating they attempted to coordinate with other researchers and were not seeking to claim credit for work they did not perform.
Why it matters
The dispute underscores the high-stakes competition and ethical tensions between major AI labs regarding scientific research and intellectual property.
Sam Altman on X: "I spent much of the weekend talking with the team who did this work. Seb--and everyone else--acted with integrity and generosity throughout.
Initially we believed the other team had also solved the problem. We wanted to collaborate and do a joint release.
When we learned that they had Euler but not Navier-Stokes, we offered to let them go first, to suggest that they should be the ones to get the prize, and optionally for Tristan to be the lead author on a rewrite of the OpenAI proof. We felt it was challenging to offer the same to Levent (an Anthropic employee), who was not willing to talk or coordinate with us anyway. We were open to other solutions.
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