There is a simple "explanation" of wing lift, though: the wing pushes air down, it applies downward force on air masses. This is a trivial consequence of Newton's third rule and the facts that a) there's gravity, b) airplanes don't fall from the sky.
If you want to know what exactly is happening to the air around the wing you need fluid dynamics of course.
I don't know if we'll get any such "conservation of X" principle from the AI world, but that would be pretty cool.
I'd argue that that is not really an "explanation", because you cannot meaningfully generalize it. Yes, there is a lift because there is upward force on the wing, because there is a downward force on the air... But, how do you use it in another context? That feels more like a sequence of tautologies, than an explanation.
But if air is pushed down, then it must continue moving down (much like with a hovering rocket, or a helicopter.)
But this effect does not appear in typical airfoil flow-diagrams. Instead, the air approaches horizontally, and leaves horizontally. It's a symmetrical pattern, as guaranteed by "circulation theory." In these diagrams, the wing doesn't fling any air downwards. (Heh, the same thing happens with helicopters that fly inside a giant vertical pipe, where the blade-tips slide along the inside surface of the pipe.)
If you want to know what exactly is happening to the air around the wing you need fluid dynamics of course.
I don't know if we'll get any such "conservation of X" principle from the AI world, but that would be pretty cool.