On Tuesday, Open AI announced its unreleased A.I. technology solved the Navier-Stokes existence and smoothness problem, one of seven Millennium Problems selected in 2000 by the Clay Mathematics Institute. Founded by Landon T. Clay, the institute offers a $1 million prize per solution; only one had been solved previously.

The equations describe the movement of liquids and gases, used for weather prediction, ocean currents, and climate modeling. The problem asks whether these equations become unreliable or unsolvable in certain scenarios, theoretically implying physics could break down — for instance, water spontaneously exploding.

Terence Tao, a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, described the implication: energy imploding into infinite velocity. While simulations have not shown this occurring, Open AI's solution suggests it could happen in theory.