Thought Experiment: Could AI Trained Only on Pre-1940 Text Invent the Microwave?
chkbd1102 · reddit · 2026-08-05
A user sparked a thought experiment: if an AI model were trained exclusively on text available before 1940, could we prompt it to "invent" the microwave? The microwave was invented around 1945, and the poster assumes that by 1940, there was enough foundational scientific knowledge to serve as a basis for the discovery. The post touches upon the limits of AI reasoning and combinatorial creativity.
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