130B output tokens = 35,616 PhD-years: the scale argument for AI research output
YouJiacheng · x · 2026-09-11
YouJiacheng does the math: if a human PhD produces 10k tokens of useful output per day, 130B output tokens equals 13 million days — about 35,616 years. Can a human PhD find the Navier-Stokes blowup solution in 35,616 years? A striking framing of how model training runs dwarf human research throughput.
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