So we are back to the original comment that generated this thread: why hasn't AI generated a new and better compression algorithm, for example?

As I see it, it's because it didn't want to.

Hear me out: let's say that generating a new and better compression algorithm is something that might take a dedicated researcher about a year of their life, and that person is being paid to work on it, in the industry or via a grant. Is there anyone who has been running Claude Code instances for a human-year in a loop with the instruction to try different approaches until it has a better compression algorithm?