OpenAI Researcher Chen Lijie on the Navier-Stokes Result: It Outpaced My Predictions
APPSO · wechat · 2026-09-09
APPSO adds detail on OpenAI's Navier-Stokes announcement and the surrounding priority dispute.
- How it ran: 10,000 agents explored both "singularity exists" and "doesn't exist" branches from Sept 1; 100 agents first cracked the Euler blowup in 50 hours as a stepping stone, with the answer coming 88 hours in and Lean verification taking 17 more hours.
- Chen Lijie reacts: the Yao-class alum and OpenAI researcher said he predicted AI would publish top math papers by 2027 and solve a Millennium Problem around 2028 — reality outpaced his forecast.
- Priority dispute: Buckmaster published email records questioning OpenAI's incomplete description of its process and whether it accessed his team's Codex research materials; Noam Brown and Anthropic's Sholto Douglas both said data misuse is highly unlikely.
- Open questions: authorship, credit, and whether an AI-generated proof counts as a discovery all await new academic rules.
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