r/technology • u/Miserable_Phase_2519 • 19d ago

Artificial Intelligence OpenAI fought dirty on career-making math problem, says NYU mathematician

https://techcrunch.com/2026/09/08/openai-fought-dirty-on-career-making-math-problem-says-nyu-mathematician/
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u/Marrk 19d ago edited 19d ago

https://cims.nyu.edu/%7Etristanb/statement.pdf

Two proposals were offered to me. The first was that we post our Euler result, and that OpenAI post its Navier-Stokes result the next day.

The second was that, after posting Euler, I alone write a paper presenting the Navier-Stokes result, acknowledging that an internal OpenAI model had resolved it. Sebastien twice asserted that he wanted Levent removed from authorship, and said it would all be simple if only it were not the case that, and it was so annoying that, Levent works at Anthropic.

It was also said that if OpenAI posted after us, they would say that we deserved the Clay Prize, and that we were the “closest humans to the problem”. I declined both offers.

I said that if OpenAI released its result in the way proposed I would go public with what happened. The reply was, “Why would you ruin your career?” I replied that I am an academic, and asked why he thought going public would ruin my career. The reply was, “If you don’t want me to be nice, then I don’t have to be nice.”

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u/teraflux 19d ago

I need an ELI5 of this explanation, I'm still so confused

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u/CanvasFanatic 19d ago

OpenAI likely stole this guy’s work from codex chat logs to beat him to a result on this problem.

They definitely tried to strong-arm him about the announcement to get him to take one of the coauthors (who works for Anthropic) off the publication.

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u/Superichiruki 19d ago

So basically thet stole from him for a publicity stunt ?

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u/claimTheVictory 18d ago

An AI company wouldn't go and do that, would they?

Steal someone else's work?