- OpenAI aims to launch AI “research interns” in 2026
- By 2028, Sam Altman says the goal is a fully autonomous AI researcher
- This shift toward “personal AGI” could turn AI from a chat tool into a true collaborator
Sam Altman says within the next year, OpenAI expects its models to work like AI “research interns”, and by 2028, they could function as fully independent researchers.
It’s a bold timeline, and one that hints at what Altman calls a more “personal AGI” future, where AI isn’t just answering questions but actually helping you think.
These comments surfaced during a recent livestream appearance in a response to "When will AGI (Artificial General Intelligence) happen?" to which Altman replied "I would say the AGI term has become hugely overloaded and it'll be this process over a number of years. Our goal is by March 2028 to have a true automated AI researcher and define what that means rather than satisfy everyone with a definition for AGI."
It's clear that OpenAI wants its AI capabilities to go beyond ChatGPT and become a tool that can genuinely improve workflows around the world, but that sounds easier said than done.
When will AGI happen? Sam Altman: We are in the middle of the process. It's not a single point, but a transition. "Our goal is an automated AI researcher by March 2028." It's about inching closer, surpassing humans on multiple axes. pic.twitter.com/czzUQW9TOdOctober 28, 2025
What does an “AI research intern” look like?
If Altman's claim that OpenAI will provide the wider population with an AI research intern in 2026 is correct, what will that mean exactly?
Well, think of it as ChatGPT with added functionality to help you complete your tasks. You might ask this future ChatGPT to read a paper, compare it with other work, and highlight what’s new or requires improving. Maybe it could even help you understand a technical concept and suggest next steps?
Today’s chatbots can do bits of this, but only when you give them a structure to follow. Altman seems to imagine a version of AI that starts making useful decisions on its own.
An AI research intern sounds like it could be the next logical step for ChatGPT, but truly reliable AI requires a way to remove AI hallucinations altogether, so you can fully trust the answers you're given. If not you'll need to keep double-checking the work of the AI intern, completely defeating the purpose of the tool.
Until AI is 100% accurate, no "AI research intern" will ever be useful enough to actually help you do your job.
2028 and beyond
Altman’s 2028 target is far more dramatic. Instead of assisting a human researcher, he’s talking about an AI that can act like one, which means designing and testing ideas independently, then presenting the results to a human. This sounds like something more in line with a colleague than a chatbot.
If that sounds worrying, then I totally feel the same way. Altman's vision of an "AI researcher" could be the AI we've been fearing all along, and while it won't be full AGI as such, it would still completely overhaul the workforce.
That said, it makes sense that this is where AI could be heading. AI is good at navigating huge piles of information, so letting it run small experiments is a natural step in improving its capabilities.
OpenAI has hit aggressive milestones before, but moving from today’s chatbots to genuine research agents is a steep climb. There are safety issues, accuracy problems, and the ever-present question of who controls these systems.
Even if OpenAI is confident in its timeline, the quality bar matters more than the calendar. An AI that confidently gives wrong answers is worse than useless. You need something that can show its working, cite sources, and admit when it doesn’t know.
If Altman's predictions are correct then the date we finally reach AGI isn't necessarily important. In essence, OpenAI and its competitors are already working on turning AI from a tool that responds to us into one that works alongside us.
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