WSJ What’s News - OpenAI Just Solved One of the Hardest Problems in Math

Episode Date: September 8, 2026

P.M. Edition for Sept. 8. OpenAI says it’s cracked the Navier-Stokes problem, one of the seven Millennium Prize Problems that are the deepest and most difficult unresolved questions in mathematics. WSJ Science of Success columnist Ben Cohen explains why labs like OpenAI are competing—and spending millions—for such breakthroughs. Plus, a dozen nations are imposing new trade restrictions on Israel over the expansion of settlements in the West Bank. And Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie Bunch III, the first African-American and the first historian to lead the institution, is stepping down after more than a year of tension with President Trump. Alex Ossola hosts. Sign up for the WSJ's free What's News newsletter. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

A dozen nations say they'll impose trade restrictions on Israel over its expansion of settlements in the West Bank. Plus, OpenAI says it's solved one of the hardest problems in math. They've been able to show that these models are becoming increasingly powerful and can do lots of stuff that would have sounded really improbable and even impossible, not all that long ago. And a growing number of colleges are admitting students who didn't even apply directly. It's Tuesday, September 8th. I'm Alex O'Solev for the Wall Street Journal. This is the PM edition of What's News, the top headlines and business stories that move the world today. We begin this evening in Washington, where Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie Bunch the 3rd,

announced that he's retiring and will leave by the end of the year. Bunch is the first African-American and the first historian to lead the institution, which is the world's largest museum and research complex. His departure follows more than a year of tension with President Trump over the way U.S. history is portrayed at the Smithsonian. The Smithsonian's governing board of regents is expected to name an acting chief. In New York City, officials have released documents that detail what the city knew about the toxic conditions around Ground Zero after the September 11th terrorist attacks. It will be 25 years since September 11th this Friday. New York City mayor Zoran Mamdani said today that more people have died from related illnesses than the nearly 3,000 who were killed on that day. People got sick because the leaders they trusted lied and told them they were safe to breathe in toxic air.

First responders and others who lived and worked in the area around the World Trade Center site have suffered from respiratory illnesses and chronic conditions, including cancer, as a result of their exposure. Researchers have found that first responders and other workers at the World Trade Center site are more likely to have leukemia than the average person. These are documents that show what the city knew about the toxic air around ground zero, when they knew it, and how they acted to limit liability. They contain details about DEP's response. They show how asbestos was found nearly everywhere that inspectors tested. And they will help New Yorkers access the health care they need. The documents are now on a public portal operated by the city, and more documents will be added to it over the next year. Twelve countries said today that they would impose new trade restrictions on Israel over the expansion of settlements in the West Bank.

The UK was the first country to announce the measures. Speaking at the House of Commons today, UK Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband said the country would stop direct trade with the West Bank settlements. We refuse to be bystanders to further suffering and to the destruction of the two states' The other countries included Canada and European nations like France and Norway. Israel accused the U.K. of interfering in its sovereign affairs and retaliated by saying it would close the British consulate in East Jerusalem and expel British representatives from the U.S.-led coordination center for post-war Gaza. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters in Florida that the U.K. had alerted the Trump administration to its plans before the announcement. Rubio said that the U.S. wouldn't do what the U.K. did, but that Trump hadn't commented yet. We share the goal of stability. We don't want to see some uptick in violence or an uptick in conflict or tensions in the West Bank. At a very tenuous time in the region, there's always tenuous times.

And a group of the 18 biggest shipping countries warned today that threats like global conflicts and shadow fleets are spreading uncertainty across global supply chains. The informal alliance called the Consultative Shipping Group said, Attacks on ships in the Strait of Hormuz and the Black Sea were signs that freedom of navigation, a cornerstone of global shipping, is eroding, and that sending costs higher. International oil prices touched above $99 a barrel today after more attacks on energy infrastructure in the Middle East, with Houthi militants firing drones and missiles at gas and oil storage facilities in Saudi Arabia. Oil futures later gave up some of those gains and closed just under $98 a barrel. In stocks, indexes fell to start the week. The Dow led the declines, ending down 1.2%.

Hurting the Dow was Biotech Amgen, which fell 10% today. Its worst one-day decline since 2000. That came after another company, Novartis, suffered a setback with a heart disease drug in a clinical trial and that cast doubt on similar drugs, including an investigational treatment from Amgen. Coming up, how OpenAI claimed a holy grail of math, plus more AI news after the break. AI has come for math, and it's already besting some of the field's best minds. Today, OpenAI said that one of its internal models has solved what's called the Navier-Stokes' existence and smoothness problem. It's a fundamental question about the rules that describe how liquids and gases move,

and it's one of the seven Millennium Prize problems that are the most difficult unsolved questions in mathematics. OpenAI published its findings, along with the 165-page proof that VIII, verifies the argument step by step. The company says it took as many as 10,000 AI agents about 88 hours to solve the problem and that it amounts to millions of dollars in computing resources. Science of Success columnist Ben Cohen says this is an example of AI doing something that humans have tried and failed to do. What the AI labs have done is use math as a way to show off the capabilities of the latest

model. So they've been able to show that these models are becoming increasingly powerful and can do lots of stuff that would have sounded really improbable and even impossible not all that long ago. But even in recent months, as AI models made sort of unthinkable progress when it came to finding math solutions, people inside the math world would always say, okay, this is all great. These breakthroughs are amazing in their own right, but wake me up when it solves a Millennium Prize problem. Well, now we've all been woken up and a Millennium Prize problem has been solved, Open AI says. In other AI news, Meta has launched a personal AI agent that's designed to be easy to use.

The agent called Muse is accessible via a dedicated app. It's Meta's latest attempt to monetize its AI investments, which are expected to top $130 billion this year. Anthropic and OpenAI have built businesses around agents, but most people are using them for software coding or other business applications. Consumer adoption is lagging, and that gives Meta, Apple, and other companies an opening to catch up. Alexander Wang, met as chief AI officer, told the journal what its agent can do. For an average user, if you have a few workflows set up, like it's giving you a daily digest and it's checking up your email and, you know, it's just a few of these kind of workflows is helping with your health and helping with your workouts.

That kind of user I think will safely fit within the free plan. If you're really a power user, you're putting the limits, like it's helping you organize half of your small business and continuously monitoring live information. Those are the cases where I think you would really end up pushing towards some of the hour each or tiers. The two subscription plans cost $20 and $100 a month. For students applying to college, there's nothing quite like the suspense of opening letters from schools you applied to.

But now, hundreds of colleges are sending acceptance letters to students who didn't even apply. The process called direct admissions is becoming more popular as the pipeline of college applicants dwindles and schools scramble for top students. Journal reporter Rocheon Fernandez joins me now with more. So, Rocheon, there are these websites that act as matchmakers between students and schools. How does this work? Yeah, so it's a much simplified application process. It's a lot like a social media profile. They ask for your basic info. There's no essays. There's no requirement to fill out extracurriculars or activities. There's no mandate for standardized scores. And essentially using the most important thing, your high school transcript, they decide whether to offer you admission. What are the kinds of schools

that are doing this and why? We're seeing it with a lot of smaller private schools. The number of college-going students is dwindling. And for the colleges, it's good to just be in front of as many people as possible. You're reaching kids who may have never even heard that you exist. And they never would have thought to apply to you directly. And so now it's like we can offer admission. we can introduce ourselves to the students and basically woo them into attending. Are schools changing the kinds of students they admit to do direct admissions? The schools say that they're keeping the standard the same. They say that this isn't watering down their applicant pool.

This isn't changing who would enroll. This is simplifying the process and making it easier for those kids who would enroll anyway to find them. That was WSJ reporter, Roshan Fernandez. Thanks, Roshan. Thanks, Alex. So fewer people are going to college. What questions do you have about the? as an alum or as a student or just as someone who cares about higher education.

Send a voice memo to WNPOD at WSJ.com or leave a voicemail with your name and location at 212-416-4328. We might use it on the show. And that's what's news for this Tuesday afternoon. Today's show is produced by Danny Lewis with supervising producer Tali Arbell. And a special thanks to Megan Mabrowski. I'm Alex O'Sullough for The Wall Street Journal. We'll be back with a new show tomorrow morning. Thanks for listening.