OpenAI's new tool brings vibe coding to scientific research
What's the story
OpenAI has launched a new AI-powered workspace called Prism. The tool is available for free to anyone with a ChatGPT account. It serves as an advanced word processor and research assistant for scientific papers. The software is deeply integrated with GPT-5.2, allowing users to evaluate claims, edit text, or look up previous studies efficiently.
Acceleration tool
Prism: A tool to accelerate scientific research
Prism is not meant to conduct independent research without human intervention. However, OpenAI executives believe it will speed up the work of human scientists. Kevin Weil, VP of OpenAI for Science, compared Prism to coding interfaces like Cursor and Windsurf. He said, "I think 2026 will be for AI and science what 2025 was for AI and software engineering."
User engagement
OpenAI's response to increased scientific queries
The launch of Prism comes as OpenAI sees an increase in scientific queries on its consumer products like ChatGPT. The company says that ChatGPT gets an average of 8.4 million messages a week on advanced hard science topics. However, it is difficult to determine how many of these are from professional researchers.
AI adoption
AI models in academic research
AI-assisted research is becoming more common among academic researchers. In mathematics, AI models have been used to prove a number of long-standing Erdos problems through literature review and new applications of existing techniques. A statistics paper published in December even used GPT-5.2 Pro to establish new proofs for a central axiom of statistical theory with human researchers only prompting and verifying the model's work.
Collaboration model
OpenAI's vision for human-AI collaboration in research
OpenAI has praised the December paper as a model for human-AI collaboration in research. The company wrote in a blog post, "In domains with axiomatic theoretical foundations, frontier models can help explore proofs, test hypotheses, and identify connections that might otherwise take substantial human effort to uncover." This vision is reflected in Prism's integration with LaTeX and its use of GPT-5.2's visual capabilities for creating diagrams from online whiteboard drawings.
Enhanced responses
Prism's unique feature: Contextual AI responses
One of Prism's most powerful features is its ability to provide more relevant and intelligent responses by using rigorous context management. When users open a ChatGPT window through Prism, the model can access the full context of the research project. This makes responses both more relevant and smarter. OpenAI hopes that this cleaner interface will attract scientific researchers faster than before.