OpenAI says automated research intern is on schedule, targets 2028 AI researcher

The “research intern” is designed to perform research tasks commissioned by a human. OpenAI described it as “a system that can carry out well-defined research tasks under human direction, including tasks that would take a skilled researcher a few days,” TechRadar reported. The intern is the main milestone in the completion of the fully automated system.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman announced the automated AI researcher project during an October 2025 livestream. “We think it is plausible,” he said, “that by September of next year, we have an intern-level AI research assistant and that by March 2028, we have a legitimate AI researcher.” The company now says the September 2026 target has been met.

OpenAI has justified the development of the automated AI researcher by citing the reduced cost of AI and the need to defend critical infrastructure against capable AI threats. TechRadar reported that these are observations OpenAI may not have published had the Hugging Face incident not occurred.

The update also addressed safety. OpenAI argued against the use of recursive self-improvement in developing automated research capabilities, noting that achieving that safely is not currently achievable. TechRadar reported that OpenAI’s post underlines its continued response to the Hugging Face incident and introduces safety steps at an earlier stage of product development. The update explains how coding agents are used for development at the company and confirms recent revisions to monitoring standards.

OpenAI said that “Agent-powered AI research is still new, and we are still learning how to measure it.” TechRadar reported that the “intern” could herald considerable changes to the completion of research when the automated AI research tool is finally completed. The company has said automated research can “enhance human welfare” and make other contributions.