Ben Goertzel claims earlier LLM-assisted Navier-Stokes proof attempt, vies for priority

bengoertzel · x · 2026-09-09

Reacting to DeepMind's AI-assisted proof of Navier-Stokes existence and uniqueness (reportedly via OpenAI's Astra and $22.5M of compute), Ben Goertzel says he attempted a proof months earlier with LLM help. His approach maps results from the HJB equation onto Navier-Stokes to transfer existence/uniqueness results. If it holds up, his write-up on Google Drive would constitute a priority claim by traditional math standards — though it hasn't been formally verified, and he concedes there may be gaps. He notes formal verification of long proofs is newly feasible — and newly necessary — in the LLM era.

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