OpenAI launches 'Prism' to revolutionize scientific research workflows

OpenAI launched a new application called Prism on Tuesday, with the ambition of achieving for scientific research what coding agents such as Claude Code and its proprietary Codex platform have accomplished for software development.

Prism is built upon the foundation of Crixet, a cloud-based LaTeX platform that the company simultaneously announced it has acquired. For those unfamiliar, LaTeX is a typesetting system used to format scientific documents and journals. While almost the entire scientific community relies on LaTeX, it can make certain tasks, like creating diagrams using TikZ commands, quite time-consuming. Moreover, LaTeX is just one of several software tools a scientist might use when getting ready to publish their findings.

This is where Prism enters the picture. Like Crixet before it, the application provides robust LaTeX editing capabilities and an integrated AI assistant. However, replacing Crixet’s previous Chirp agent, Prism now features GPT-5.2 Thinking.

OpenAI’s model can assist with more than just journal formatting. During a press demonstration, an OpenAI staff member used the tool to locate and incorporate relevant scientific literature into a paper, with GPT-5.2 automatically generating the bibliography.

“None of this exempts the scientist from the responsibility of confirming the accuracy of their references, but it certainly has the potential to accelerate the process,” stated Kevin Weil, OpenAI’s vice president of science, when questioned about the possibility of accurate citations.

“We’re conscious that, as AI becomes more capable, there are concerns around volume, quality, and trust in the scientific community,” he added. “Our view is that the right response is not to keep AI at arm’s length or let it operate invisibly in the background; it’s to integrate it directly into scientific workflows in ways that preserve accountability and keep researchers in control.”

Later in the same demo, the OpenAI employee used Prism to generate a lesson plan for a graduate course on general relativity, as well as a set of problems for students to solve. OpenAI intends these capabilities to allow professors and scientists to dedicate less time to the repetitive aspects of their work.

Prism is currently accessible to all users with a personal ChatGPT account, offering support for an unlimited number of projects and collaborators. OpenAI plans to roll out this software to organizations subscribed to ChatGPT Business, Team, Enterprise, and Education plans in the near future. The company does not plan to offer Crixet as a separate product.