OpenAI has introduced a new scientific workspace program named Prism, now freely accessible to all ChatGPT account holders. Launched on Tuesday, Prism functions as an AI-enhanced word processor and research tool specifically designed for scientific papers. It boasts deep integration with GPT-5.2, enabling users to leverage the AI for assessing claims, refining prose, and conducting searches for prior research.

While Prism is not intended to independently conduct research, its primary goal is to accelerate the work performed by human scientists, echoing the impact of coding interfaces like Cursor and Windsurf on software engineering.

Kevin Weill, OpenAI's VP for Science, anticipates a significant shift, stating that "2026 will be for AI and science what 2025 was for AI and software engineering." This new web-based software comes at a time when OpenAI's consumer products, such as ChatGPT, are experiencing a surge in scientific queries. The company reports an average of 8.4 million messages per week on advanced hard science topics, indicating a growing demand for AI tools in scientific fields, although the exact number from professional researchers remains hard to quantify.

The increasing prevalence of AI-assisted research among academics further underscores the potential of tools like Prism. In mathematics, AI models have successfully contributed to proving long-standing Erdos problems by combining extensive literature review with novel applications of existing techniques. Although the significance of these proofs is still under discussion, they represent an early triumph for proponents of AI models and formal verification systems.

Similarly, a statistics paper published in December showcased GPT 5.2 Pro's capability to establish new proofs for a central axiom of statistical theory, with human researchers primarily focusing on prompting and verifying the model's output. OpenAI lauded this achievement in a blog post, presenting it as a blueprint for future human-AI collaboration in research. The post highlighted that "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."

Much of Prism's value stems from its thoughtful product design based on existing standards. It seamlessly integrates with LaTeX, the widely used open-source system for formatting and typesetting scientific papers, offering capabilities that extend beyond most current LaTeX software tools. Furthermore, Prism harnesses GPT 5.2's visual capabilities, allowing researchers to effortlessly create diagrams from online whiteboard drawings, thereby addressing a common pain point in existing research workflows. Perhaps its most potent feature lies in combining the inherent power of an AI model with more stringent context management.

When users access a ChatGPT window through Prism, the model is granted full access to the entire research project's context, leading to more pertinent and intelligent responses. While a skilled GPT-5.2 user might achieve similar results, OpenAI aims to attract scientific researchers more rapidly through Prism's cleaner and more intuitive interface. Weill emphasized that this combination of factors—powerful models and deep workflow integration—is precisely what propelled advancements in software engineering, and is expected to do the same for science.