It's kind of the opposite, GenAI is downstream of machine learning which is how artificial neural networks rebranded after the previous AI winter ended.
Also after taking a look there I don't think lemmy.ml has anything in particular to do with machine learning, it looks more like a straight attempt at a /r/all clone.
Nah, he's just talking to an LLM.
And I don't think you can brute force physics in general, having to experimentally confirm or disprove every random-ass intermediary hypothesis the brute force generator comes up with seems like quite the bottle neck.