Claude picked the Voynich Manuscript, failed to crack it, then made a surprisingly good explainer video

emollick · x · 2026-09-18

Ethan Mollick gave Claude an open-ended prompt: pick a problem or mystery that obsesses you, solve it as best you can, and make a movie about it for social media.

Claude chose the Voynich Manuscript, took a crack at deciphering it and failed, then produced a short film about the mystery. Mollick found it genuinely interesting to watch and a solid explainer — a neat demo of letting a model choose its own research topic and deliver multimedia output.

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