Comment by fragmede

Play that out. How do you see that going? Some researcher post doc with access to ChatGPT-12 just casually asks "hey this thing that violates the laws of physics as we understand them, how could that work?", and ChatGPT-12 says "oh that's easy, just frobb the frozzonator", and the post doc just wanders over to Home Depot, grabs the parts to build a cold fusion plant to do that for $50 on a post doc's salary, but is killed by the evil agents of Big Coal on the drive back to the lab? How would that work?

Every idiot who doesn't understand the science and math behind fusion can now get ChatGPT-4o to give themselves an interactive review on the physics and practical reasons why cold fusion doesn't produce more power than you put in. (Muon-catalyzed fusion is a room temperature science thing we can do, but it won't produce power so it's relatively uninteresting).

If cold fusion were possible and a postdoc figured out how with the help of ChatGPT-12, they'd announce it on Threads, write a draft paper, run the theoretical physics past everyone will listen, everyone wound rush to replicate and confirm, or disprove the theory, funding would roll in when it was actually agreed to be theoretically possible, we'd build it, we'd have limitless power too cheap to meter, and then we'd argue over if ChatGPT-12 deserves the Nobel or the postdoc.

Cold fusion isn't being held back by Big Coal.