The fact that this is plausible should be deeply disturbing and disqualifying for openAI. The fact that they may prevail and win is a travesty of our failed system.

What does "win" mean? There is no prize for this, and having someone discover a proof benefits us all.

The prize is a tenure for the researcher, and in OpenAI's case, a higher valuation when they IPO?

In this case, the tenure is gone, and OpenAI has increased their valuation

Sure there is. A job, tenure, professional respect, Fields medal.

Disqualifying for what? If you develop a proof you aren’t competing for something, you’re expanding the frontier of knowledge. It’s a binary state of the world, either it’s proven or not. Prevail and win what exactly?