What would should have a lab have, today, in the context of research on topics like string theory? That a simple office with a desk would not have, I mean.

Genuinely curious.

Most of researchers' work is with formulas and reading articles. Even if you had a lab, you'd still need to think long and hard about what exactly you are trying to measure, and then design an experiment on paper before it can be carried out.

So it's possible, in theory, that an AI-in-a-box could do the hardest parts of science aside from experiments. Whether modern LLMs are any good at it is a different question.

Obviously I’m talking about mathematical/computational physics, not experimental physics. I don’t expect the AI to build itself a tokamak to run experiments on.