OpenAI researcher allegedly pressured mathematician to drop Anthropic co-author from math breakthrough paper
OpenAI researcher Sébastien Bubeck allegedly pressured mathematician Tristan Buckmaster to drop his Anthropic co-author from an AI-assisted Navier-Stokes breakthrough paper.
Mathematician Tristan Buckmaster says OpenAI, after learning of his and Levent Alpöge's AI-assisted progress on the Navier-Stokes equations, pressed him to drop his Anthropic-employed co-author and dictated how any results would be announced. He says Sébastien Bubeck claimed an internal OpenAI model had produced a roughly 100-page proof for Navier-Stokes with forcing and allegedly told him 'Why would you ruin your career?' when he threatened to go public. Buckmaster published a public statement detailing the exchanges; OpenAI has not yet responded. The pair had worked with models including Claude and OpenAI Codex running GPT-5.6 Sol on the Clay Millennium Problem, which carries a $1 million prize.
- Buckmaster and Alpöge used Claude and OpenAI Codex (GPT-5.6 Sol) on Navier-Stokes, a Clay Millennium Problem with a $1M prize.
- Bubeck twice proposed removing Alpöge from authorship because his Anthropic role was 'so annoying', per Buckmaster.
- OpenAI claimed an internal model produced a ~100-page forced Navier-Stokes proof; Buckmaster has not seen it.
- Buckmaster rejected OpenAI's co-announcement proposals and threatened to go public; OpenAI has not responded.
From the original article
3 min read at the-decoder.com
Mathematician Tristan Buckmaster says OpenAI pressured him after his AI-assisted progress on the Navier-Stokes equations leaked. The company allegedly tried to remove his co-author because he works at Anthropic and threatened Buckmaster when he refused. OpenAI then claimed its own breakthrough using the same unusual solution path.
By Matthias Bastian · the-decoder.com
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