OpenAI said on September 6, 2026 that it reached the goal Sam Altman set in October 2025 of an automated research intern by September 2026: a system that can carry out well-defined research tasks under human direction, including work that would take a skilled researcher a few days. The company said it is making strong progress toward an automated AI researcher by March 2028. By mid-August its research organization logged 3.1 agent-workdays per human workday, and median researcher inference spend exceeded $600 a day at API prices.
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