Testing GPT-5 as an AI Research Assistant: Training Models on a Laptop

Summary

The author explores whether GPT-5 can function as an AI research assistant by attempting to answer a specific research question: 'What's the strongest AI model you can train on a laptop in five minutes?' While using GPT-5 for Python scripting assistance and idea bouncing, the author maintains that they were still the primary researcher - generating ideas, running experiments, and making decisions based on data. The best model achieved was a 1.8M parameter transformer that produced simple story-like output, demonstrating the limitations of rapid training on consumer hardware.