Research acceleration: The view inside OpenAI
OpenAI essays tout an 'RSI day' and agentic engineering adoption, with AI spend per researcher accelerating sharply after late-July internal model access.
Two OpenAI pieces, including Chief Scientist Jakub Pachocki's essay 'An Alien Mind', describe 'RSI day' (Recursive Self-Improvement) and the lab's AGI framing. The post details how OpenAI's research team increasingly relies on coding agents, with agentic engineering scaling through 2026. A chart shows AI spend per researcher accelerating sharply in late July, which Willison attributes to internal employees gaining access to a new model.
- OpenAI essays reference 'RSI day' and new AGI framing
- Chief Scientist Jakub Pachocki authored the 'An Alien Mind' essay
- Agentic engineering scaled significantly at OpenAI during 2026
- AI spend per researcher jumped in late July 2026
From the original article
Research acceleration: The view inside OpenAI Apparently today is RSI day at OpenAI, for Recursive Self-Improvement - I think it's their new AGI. Both this piece and the new essay An Alien Mind (by Chief Scientist Jakub Pachocki) talk about it, and this one doesn't even bother to expand the acronym. Included are details on how OpenAI's own research team are using coding agents.
simonwillison.net
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