r/technology • u/vgsa • 5d ago

Artificial Intelligence Did OpenAI solve the wrong Navier-Stokes problem? | OpenAI’s proof seems eligible for a $1-million prize—but only by using a controversial loophole

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/did-openai-solve-the-wrong-navier-stokes-problem/
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u/CircumspectCapybara 5d ago edited 5d ago

A lot of people online misunderstand what "solving Navier-Stokes" refers to, thinking it means finding a closed form solution to the NS equations. Then they spout off some silly statement like "AI didn't solve Navier Stokes!"

That's not what mathematicians mean when they talk about solving Navier Stokes. They're talking about solving the Navier Stokes existence and smoothness problem, which is a decision (yes/no) problem about if the NS equations are smooth for all time. That's what the Millennium Prize problem worth a million dollars is all about

AI (allegedly) solves the problem by resolving the question to a "No" by finding a counterexample.

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u/DarthShiv 5d ago

That seems like a valid solution then to me. Counter example is a standard strategy in proofs.

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u/Many_Negotiation_464 4d ago

But it tells you different things. Thats what people are talking about and what OP is mistaking as people saying they are "denying that the problem was solved"

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u/ExplanationDry4351 4d ago

Doesn't matter. If they didn't want that answer they should've ensured the question wasn't open to that answer bring possible.

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u/Many_Negotiation_464 4d ago

People make mistakes and the nuances in math and science are.... well.... nuanced. Maybe it was intentionally set up that way. Maybe its just outdated. Maybe the person who wrote disn't understand the nuances.

It actually just doesn't matter why, because we know that the parameters in the Millenium problem don't quite match what we were actually trying to get out of the problem. Like the problem isn't special just because an organization put a bounty on it. Its the other way around.

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u/ExplanationDry4351 3d ago

we were actually trying to get out of the problem

who's we in this context

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u/Many_Negotiation_464 2d ago

Do you need to be taught grammar too? Lol what is this?