If I pursue a beam of light ...

Stephanie Arnett/MIT Technology Review | Library of Congress, Wellcome Collection

Having AI do sophisticated searches and analysis into complex ideas is one thing, asking it to do research on it's own poses interesting questions as doing research requires curiosity, common sense and asking the  question, why is this the way it is? For example, Einstein, While recounting the efforts that led to the special theory of relativity, he recalled"... a paradox upon which I had already hit at the age of sixteen: If I pursue a beam of light ...

The thought is simplicity itself. Here is light, a waveform propagating at c:

... or the discovery of benzene beginning by visualizing the ouroboros as start point. 

Here Kekulé spoke of the creation of the theory. He said that he had discovered the ring shape of the benzene molecule after having a reverie or day-dream of a snake biting its own tail (a symbol in ancient cultures known as the ouroboros).[41] This vision, he said, came to him after years of studying the nature of carbon-carbon bonds.

A dragon-like ouroboros in a 1478 drawing in an alchemical tract

Skeletal formula detail of benzene.

 In Arthur Koestler's The Act of Creation, the book starts off with a joke. To me, the best one is Henny Youngman's Take my wife, please. This is bisociation or the adding together of two or more seemingly dissimilar things that produce a heretofore unexpected result. In this case, irony and humor. Regarding  H2O, hydrogen and oxygen are explosive. When combined, they become water.

And so it begins - Kurt Vonnegut.

OpenAI is refocusing its research efforts and throwing its resources into a new grand challenge. The San Francisco firm has set its sights on building what it calls an AI researcher, a fully automated agent-based system that will be able to go off and tackle large, complex problems by itself. ​​OpenAI says that this new research goal will be its “North Star” for the next few years, pulling together multiple research strands, including work on reasoning models, agents, and interpretability. 

There’s even a timeline. OpenAI plans to build “an autonomous AI research intern”—a system that can take on a small number of specific research problems by itself—by September. The AI intern will be the precursor to a fully automated multi-agent research system that the company plans to debut in 2028. This AI researcher (OpenAI says) will be able to tackle problems that are too large or complex for humans to cope with.

Asking Gemini regarding research & it's connect to creativity produced this ...

OpenAI’s pivot toward building a "fully automated researcher" marks a transition from Large Language Models (LLMs) to what are increasingly termed Large Reasoning Models (LRMs). By focusing on reasoning, agentic behavior, and interpretability, the goal is to move beyond probabilistic word prediction and toward structured problem-solving. However, assessing this goal through the lens of Arthur Koestler’s The Act of Creation reveals a significant gap between logical computation and bisociation.

1. Bisociation vs. Iterative Search

Koestler’s central thesis in The Act of Creation is the concept of "bisociation"—the sudden, intuitive leap that occurs when two independent, previously incompatible "matrices of thought" collide to create a new meaning.

OpenAI’s current trajectory (exemplified by models like o1) focuses on System 2 thinking, which utilizes "Chain of Thought" and "Search" to explore multiple logical paths. While this is highly effective for "Refining" a solution or finding errors in complex code, it remains a linear or branched search within a known mathematical space. It is "Logical Refinement" rather than a "Conceptual Leap." A fully automated researcher would need to move beyond searching for the best answer and begin "seeing" connections between unrelated fields—the hallmark of Archimedean discovery.

2. The Curiosity Gap

In AI research, "curiosity" is often modeled as Intrinsic Motivation or Novelty Search—rewarding the agent for finding data that it cannot yet predict. This is a digital simulation of curiosity, but it lacks the Aesthetic Sense or "Wonder" that Koestler argues is vital to the creative act.

A human researcher is often driven by an "aesthetic itch"—a feeling that a theory is "ugly" or "clunky." Current AI lacks this subjective evaluator. Without a sense of "Aesthetic Fitness," an automated researcher may generate millions of valid but uninteresting or "soulless" connections, lacking the curiosity to pursue the one that feels "right" in a deeper, human sense.

3. Common Sense and the "World Model"

Koestler emphasizes that creativity is grounded in an "Analog" understanding of reality—the common sense derived from physical existence. OpenAI’s goal of building an "AI Intern" by September 2026 relies on the model’s ability to use digital tools (like Python or search engines) to solve research problems.

However, "Common Sense" in research often involves knowing when a digital result contradicts a physical reality. If the AI researcher remains "Digital-First," it may fall into the trap of Digital Hallucination—constructing internally consistent logical towers that have no foundation in the "Bones" of reality.

4. Multi-Agent Systems (2028) as a "Community of Mind"

OpenAI’s plan for a multi-agent system by 2028 mirrors Koestler’s idea that the creative mind functions as a hierarchy of sub-skills. In theory, a "Multi-Agent Research System" could simulate a scientific community, with different agents playing the roles of the "Innovator," the "Critic," and the "Logician."

The risk is that without an external "Analog" grounding, these agents may simply reinforce each other’s biases, creating a "Digital Echo Chamber." For such a system to achieve the "Act of Creation," it must have the ability to "break" its own programming—to engage in the "benign insanity" required to look at a 100-year-old problem from an entirely "wrong" (and therefore new) perspective.

Conclusion

OpenAI's "North Star" is a milestone in Infrastructural Efficiency. If successful, it will drastically speed up the "Maintenance" side of science—checking proofs, running simulations, and organizing data. But the "Act of Creation" remains a different class of problem. Until an AI can experience the "frustration" of a paradox and the "joy" of its resolution, it may remain a highly sophisticated Research Assistant rather than a true Researcher.

Late Fall - 11:00PM

And so it goes - Kurt Vonnegut