Editor’s note: Due to a scheduling change, this segment did not air on Sept. 11, 2026.

OpenAI says one of its newest large language models has solved the Navier-Stokes existence and smoothness problem, relating to a 200-year-old equation used to model fluid dynamics.

It’s one of just seven so-called millennium problems in mathematics, each carrying a $1-million prize. But the announcement was quickly overshadowed by accusations from New York University mathematician Tristan Buckmaster, who suspects OpenAI may have used his and a partner’s work to solve one of the thorniest problems in mathematics.

Here & Now‘s Indira Lakshmanan speaks with Buckmaster, who, along with Anthropic researcher Levent Alpöge, were quietly making progress on Navier-Stokes when he says OpenAI used its vast resources to beat them to it.

This segment aired on September 11, 2026. The audio for this segment is not available.