Aaronson Says AI Labs Are Sitting on Major Results After Navier-Stokes Backlash

Scott Aaronson (UT Austin CS department chair, noted quantum computing researcher, formerly with OpenAI's alignment team) wrote in his blog that after the hostile reception of the Navier-Stokes proof, frontier AI labs are now holding solutions to "very important problems" until they figure out a better way to release them. He added that, per rumors he has heard, AI companies have already solved some long-standing open problems in theoretical computer science. The claim spread widely on Sept 16, with Chinese media coverage following the next day.

Confirmed

• Aaronson himself wrote the statements in his blog—the closest thing to a primary source; RexDouglass quoted the original passage directly.
• Chris Albon, RexDouglass, ctjlewis (citing @letonyo), QuintinPope5, scaling01, Tolopono, spryes and others amplified and discussed the claim on Sept 16, with several posts noting the information was relayed via Reddit from Aaronson's blog.
• On Sept 17, Xin Zhiyuan reported that OpenAI is sitting on hundreds of AI math proofs, and that the Navier-Stokes proof cost about $15 million; the post also mentioned a NYU math professor (Scott Arm…, truncated).
• TheGoldenLeaper relayed a claim that "Greg Brockman confirmed" the story, but offered no verifiable details.
• Blogger DrSingularity speculated that a Millennium Prize Problem solution might be announced soon, offering no evidence—purely personal expectation.
• Chris Albon commented the situation is absurd: discovering new knowledge about the universe should be celebrated; jessicata lamented that disputes over credit risk overshadowing the results themselves.

Unconfirmed

• The core claim that labs have solved multiple major math problems remains an unverified rumor: no details on which labs or which problems, and multiple sharers (Chris Albon, ctjlewis) explicitly flagged it as unconfirmed.
• Xin Zhiyuan's specific figures ("hundreds of proofs," "about $15 million") lack a verifiable primary source.
• The "Greg Brockman confirmation" and DrSingularity's Millennium-Prize prediction have no primary-source support.

Why it matters

• If true, the舆论 environment is materially delaying the release of major scientific knowledge, making the results-versus-release-strategy tradeoff a new variable.
• How AI companies publish and validate major scientific results is becoming a real institutional question, as multiple sharers pointed out—beyond mere gossip.

2026-09-16 ~ 2026-09-17 · 11 related posts

Full story(20 episodes)→

• Episode 1: Rumors claim GPT-6 cracks Navier-Stokes, credibility doubtful(2026-09-05, 2 posts)
• Episode 2: OpenAI Claims 10,000 Agents Solved Navier-Stokes in 88 Hours(2026-09-09, 13 posts)
• Episode 3: Existence Proof Effect: Rumor of Solvability Drove OpenAI's Navier-Stokes Attempt(2026-09-09, 3 posts)
• Episode 4: Mathematicians Accuse OpenAI of Racing to Claim Their Unfinished Proof(2026-09-09, 6 posts)
• Episode 5: Anthropic Faces Ethics Backlash Over Math Proof and Scooped Collaboration(2026-09-09, 2 posts)
• Episode 6: Rumors swirl that OpenAI nears Hodge and BSD conjectures as Millennium Prize problems fall(2026-09-10, 27 posts)
• Episode 7: OpenAI Claims Navier-Stokes Solved, Progress on a Second Millennium Problem(2026-09-10, 21 posts)
• Episode 8: Mathematician accuses OpenAI of training Astra on his unpublished work; OpenAI denies(2026-09-10, 9 posts)
• Episode 9: Navier–Stokes Authorship Dispute Fuels Debate Over AI Labs' Scooping Culture(2026-09-10, 6 posts)
• Episode 10: OpenAI denies Codex prompts influenced training as "stolen chat data" claims unravel(2026-09-11, 8 posts)
• Episode 11: OpenAI's Millennium Prize Claim Mired in Authorship and Scooping Dispute(2026-09-11, 10 posts)
• Episode 12: AI Circles Speculate Millennium Prize Problems May Fall to AI(2026-09-11, 2 posts)
• Episode 13: Math Community Splits Over AI's Role After OpenAI's Millennium Prize Claim(2026-09-11, 8 posts)
• Episode 14: Rumor: OpenAI Aims Internal Model at Riemann Hypothesis and P vs NP(2026-09-11, 7 posts)
• Episode 15: OpenAI's Navier-Stokes Proof Passes Rechecks but Faces Scrutiny(2026-09-11, 2 posts)
• Episode 16: OpenAI's 10,000-Agent Navier-Stokes Claim Sparks Math Community Credit War(2026-09-12, 18 posts)
• Episode 17: Misread as Anti-AI, Terence Tao Sparks Debate Over the Value of Mathematics(2026-09-12, 18 posts)
• Episode 18: Fields Medalists' Open Letter on AI Sparks Cross-Disciplinary Debate(2026-09-12, 6 posts)
• Episode 19: OpenAI Claims AI Agent Solved the Navier–Stokes Blow-up Problem(2026-09-13, 8 posts)
• Episode 20: OpenAI Claims 10,000 Agents Solved Navier-Stokes Problem in 88 Hours(2026-09-14, 11 posts)

• Scott Aaronson: labs are sitting on solutions to 'very major problems' — spryes · 2026-09-16
• AI companies reportedly sitting on major solutions after hostile Navier-Stokes proof reaction — RexDouglass · 2026-09-16
• [source] Rumor: AI labs are sitting on major math solutions after the Navier-Stokes backlash — RexDouglass · 2026-09-16
• Aaronson hears AI companies have cracked longstanding TCS open problems, sitting on major announcements — scaling01 · 2026-09-16
• Frontier AI labs reportedly sitting on solutions to major unsolved math problems — chrisalbon · 2026-09-16
• Aaronson rumor: AI companies may have solved longstanding open problems in theoretical CS — QuintinPope5 · 2026-09-16
• Rumors: OpenAI may have cracked a second Millennium Problem, holding major announcements amid Navier-Stokes backlash — TheGoldenLeaper · 2026-09-16
• Blogger predicts a Millennium Prize Problem solution could drop this week — Dr_Singularity · 2026-09-16
• [source] OpenAI Reportedly Sitting on Hundreds of Unreleased Math Proofs; Navier-Stokes Proof Cost ~$15M in Compute — 新智元 · 2026-09-17

2 near-duplicate retellings: ctjlewis · Tolopono