Development

A model finds in five minutes a Bellman function sought for years

development2026-01-15

Claim

A UC Irvine mathematician gave an internal beta of Grok 4.20 an open problem in harmonic analysis and it discovered a novel Bellman function within five minutes that humans had sought for years.

Reported metric: 5 minutes

Reporting date: 2026-01-15 (not necessarily the event date)

Sources

Attribution and reporting linked by this record; links do not imply independent verification.

Welcome to January 15, 2026 (theinnermostloop.substack.com)

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About

Grok 4.20

Reported in

Welcome to January 15, 2026

Actor

Evidence for

Supersedes

The AMS president proves a result he is unsure he could reach alone

Referenced by

Welcome to January 15, 2026

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Citation formatCitation text

A model finds in five minutes a Bellman function sought for years
Innermost Loop KB — secondary record
Reporting date: 2026-01-15
KB permalink: https://nicholsn.github.io/innermost-loop-kb/developments/2026-01-15-bellman-function-in-five-minutes
Claim: A UC Irvine mathematician gave an internal beta of Grok 4.20 an open problem in harmonic analysis and it discovered a novel Bellman function within five minutes that humans had sought for years.
Attributed sources:
- Welcome to January 15, 2026 — https://theinnermostloop.substack.com/p/welcome-to-january-15-2026
This citation does not imply independent verification of linked-source claims.

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