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OpenAI says it has built its automated research intern, with 3.1 agent-days per human day

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Source: OpenAI

OpenAI said it reached the goal it set the previous autumn of an automated research intern by September 2026: a system that carries out well-defined research tasks under human direction, including tasks that take a skilled researcher a few days. As of mid-August its median researcher used more than $600 a day of inference at API prices and the 90th percentile more than $7,000; since June agent runtime has exceeded human labour, at 3.1 agent-workdays for every human workday; experiments per active experimenter hit a high in August. Over half of successful four-to-eight-hour tasks still needed at least one human intervention. The next milestone is an automated AI researcher by March 2028.

Why it matters

OpenAI is reporting how far its own research is now done by its models, and sets the date by which it expects a system that does the research itself.

When
6 Sep 2026
ID
WTA-N-2026-0253
Who
OpenAI

Summary by wheresthe.ai, from OpenAI. Checked against the source on 12 Oct 2026.

Read the original at OpenAI

Source copy: download the page text as saved on 18 Oct 2026 (PDF). Also held by the Internet Archive.

Next stop on this Storyline: What happened nextAnthropic says Claude now leads 26% of its AI research and development

Cite this story

WTA-N-2026-0253: “OpenAI says it has built its automated research intern, with 3.1 agent-days per human day.” wheresthe.ai, 6 Sep 2026. https://wheresthe.ai/d/openai-automated-research-intern-2026-09/ (source: OpenAI).

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