2026-09-07 / Signal #2
OpenAI’s “research intern” is here: 3.1 agent-days per human day
“One OpenAI researcher now comes with 3.1 invisible interns — and a $7,000 daily tab.”
The Story
OpenAI says it hit last year’s goal of an automated research intern: agents that can do well-defined research tasks that would take a skilled human a few days. Internally, the research org now logs 3.1 agent-workdays for every human workday. Median researchers burn $600+/day of inference; the 90th percentile burns $7,000+/day. Next target: a fully automated AI researcher by March 2028. Over half of successful 4–8 hour tasks still needed a human intervention.
Why It Matters
This is the Prometheus timeline with a receipt. Not “AI will do science someday” — the intern clocked in, the token bill is public, and the office-hours channel is dying because agents now debug the lab. Builder utility plus future-shock. Distinct follow-up to SFL’s Prometheus piece because they posted the milestone and the numbers.
Evidence
OpenAI, “Research acceleration: The view inside OpenAI” (6 Sept 2026); Engadget / Unite.AI writeups.
Sources
Daily scan: 2026-09-07