Did AI solve one of the hardest math problems?

2026-09-09 23:02:16Lifestyle SHKRUAR NGA REDAKSIA VOX

Did AI solve one of the hardest math problems?

Artificial intelligence may have helped solve one of mathematics' most difficult problems, but the result has yet to be confirmed by scientists.

One of the most famous problems in mathematics, known as the Navier-Stokes problem, may be closer to being solved.

Mathematicians Tristan Buckmaster and Levent Alpöge have been working on this problem and have also used artificial intelligence in their research. According to them, AI models have helped them make significant progress in studying how water, air and other fluids move.

But what problem is this?

Scientists try to understand and predict how water, air, and other fluids move. The big question is: does everything continue to flow normally, or at some point can the movement become so strong that it spins out of control and the speed increases infinitely?

This mystery has remained unsolved for more than 20 years and is one of the 7 great mathematical problems announced by the Clay Mathematics Institute that have left even the world's brightest minds in the shadows.

A $1 million prize has been set for solving the problem.

According to Buckmaster, the use of AI has greatly helped advance the work. Various models were used during the research, including models from OpenAI and Anthropic's Claude.

But this is where the debate has begun. OpenAI has emphasized the role of its models in this progress, while Buckmaster has disputed the idea that AI has done the work almost alone.

According to him, the work and contribution of mathematicians has been much greater than is presented.

At the moment, no one can say that the Navier-Stokes problem has been finally solved. The proof must be checked by other mathematicians and go through a long verification process.

If the result is confirmed, it would be a remarkable achievement for mathematics and one of the most important examples of the use of artificial intelligence in science.

And the biggest question that arises is: if AI helps solve a problem that humans haven't solved for decades, who gets the credit – the human, the AI, or both?


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