AI solved one of math's hardest problems. Humanity learned nothing (so far)

OpenAI beat humans to solving the Navier-Stokes problem, but mathematicians say the AI's solution isn't telling them much.

<img src='https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/6200x4650+0+0/resize/6200x4650!/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F35%2F6b%2F4d5113474763a720386f439bd345%2Fgettyimages-2294331667.jpg' alt='Tristan Buckmaster is a mathematician at New York University. He poses for a portrait in his office in Manhattan on September 11, 2026. Buckmaster and his collaborator Levent Alpöge have been working on the Navier-Stokes equations. They are clashing with OpenAI, which claims to have cracked the equations.'/><p>OpenAI beat humans to solving the Navier-Stokes problem, but mathematicians say the AI's solution isn't telling them much.</p><p>(Image credit: Karsten Moran/for The Washington Post)</p><img src='https://media.npr.org/include/images/tracking/npr-rss-pixel.png?story=nx-s1-5968588' />