Claude decodes Gödel's 1,009-page notebooks in 2 days; 400 of 663 theorems pass formal verification
Hesamation · x · 2026-11-15
Since 2017, logician Jan von Plato's team at the University of Helsinki had plowed through Kurt Gödel's 16 notebooks from the early 1940s — 1,009 pages largely written in the obsolete German shorthand Gabelsberger — at roughly one page a week. In September they enlisted Claude: within a couple of days it produced a comprehensive digest, surfacing 663 potential theorems, 400 of which passed formal verification.
Von Plato was "flabbergasted": the notebooks contain dozens of anticipations of results only proven in the 70s and 80s, plus 14 logic themes never pursued — "Gödel was far ahead of his time."
The notable angle: AI's value in math here isn't proving new theorems but accelerating the understanding of existing material.
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