As Gwern noted, we can’t understand chess endgames.
On this example specifically, a) it’s possible AI is too stupid to have a theory of mind of humans such that it can write good chess textbooks on these endgames. Maybe there is an elegant way of looking at it that isn’t brute force b) chess endgames are amenable to brute force in a way that “invent a microscope” is not. Scientific discovery is searching through an exponential space so you need a good heuristic or model for every major step you take, you can’t brute force it.
On this example specifically, a) it’s possible AI is too stupid to have a theory of mind of humans such that it can write good chess textbooks on these endgames. Maybe there is an elegant way of looking at it that isn’t brute force b) chess endgames are amenable to brute force in a way that “invent a microscope” is not. Scientific discovery is searching through an exponential space so you need a good heuristic or model for every major step you take, you can’t brute force it.