AI and the World's Hard Problems · Physics · Anthropic · 2026-10-09
Vibe physics: The AI grad student
Harvard physicist Matthew Schwartz supervised Claude Opus 4.5 through a full quantum chromodynamics research project, with Claude handling the code and calculations from text prompts. The work produced a technically rigorous high-energy physics paper in two weeks instead of the usual year. Schwartz found Claude fast and eager to please but sloppy, so domain expertise was essential for checking its accuracy.