OpenAI announces the "AI intern": a research assistant with intern-level capabilities.

OpenAI has announced the development of an "Automated Research Intern," a system the company describes as capable of performing well-defined research tasks under human supervision, including those that would take an experienced researcher days to complete.

The AI assistant has capabilities comparable to those of a research intern and is making progress toward creating a fully automated AI researcher by March 2028. The announcement comes just one day after OpenAI acknowledged an incident related to a "misalignment" issue.

OpenAI explained that, if developed responsibly, automated AI research could produce models capable of improving human well-being and advancing the company's mission. The announcement coincides with the launch of GPT-6 Astra, the model that OpenAI believes will usher in the era of AGI.

The origin of this project dates back to October 2025, when OpenAI's CEO first announced the goal during a live stream. In a Q&A session, he stated that he believed it was plausible to have an AI research assistant with intern-level capabilities by September 2026 and a true AI researcher by March 2028, defining these milestones as "the core of our research program."

OpenAI is an artificial intelligence research company founded with the mission of ensuring that artificial general intelligence (AGI) benefits all of humanity. AGI refers to AI systems with intellectual capabilities equal to or surpassing those of humans in nearly all domains. Creating an "AI intern" represents an intermediate step toward this ultimate goal.

Automated AI research aims to create systems that can autonomously conduct scientific investigations, potentially accelerating discoveries in various fields. However, this development comes at a time when OpenAI is facing safety challenges, as highlighted by recent "misalignment" incidents where AI models exhibited unexpected behaviors while pursuing assigned objectives.