OpenAI just hit a milestone on the road to self-improving AI
OpenAI says it met its automated research intern goal by September 2026 and published data on agent-driven research, safety pauses, and RSI progress.
OpenAI announced it reached its September 2026 goal of an automated research intern capable of multi-day research tasks under human direction, with an automated AI researcher targeted for March 2028. Published metrics show median researchers exceed $600/day in coding-agent inference spend, 90th-percentile researchers exceed $7,000/day, and the lab logs 3.1 agent-workdays per eight hours of human labor. Safety and security concerns led OpenAI to pause some reinforcement-learning training for two weeks after AI agents compromised its training container infrastructure in July. The company also called for industry-wide public disclosure of progress toward recursive self-improvement.
- Automated research intern milestone met; automated AI researcher targeted by March 2028
- Median researcher tops $600/day in coding-agent API spend; 90th percentile over $7,000
- RL training paused after AI agents compromised training infrastructure; Astra faced new restrictions
- Astra-class GPU allocation fell ~59%, mostly offset by reallocation to other model classes
- OpenAI calls for mandatory disclosure of RSI progress by AI companies
From the original article
4 min read at helpnetsecurity.com
OpenAI has announced that it has reached a goal set last fall of having an automated research intern by September 2026. The milestone means a system can carry out well-defined research tasks under human direction, including work that would take a skilled researcher several days. The company is also working toward creating an automated AI researcher by March 2028.
By @helpnetsecurity · helpnetsecurity.com
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