I recall them saying they use models to write CUDA kernels and whatnot. Makes sense, and unsurprising that models are good at writing code.

But I think calling this “automating AI research” is misleading. I’m not sure there’s evidence yet that they do creative research work. Even in mathematics, but they are finding counter-examples by intelligent brute-forcing. Not to downplay the results, as they are incredible, but this is one very specific kind of proof and not the most creative type, which arguably requires generalisation.