OpenAI Claims Scientists Are Increasingly Using ChatGPT as a Research Collaborator

OpenAI has outlined a growing role for artificial intelligence (AI) systems as collaborators in scientific research, arguing that tools like ChatGPT can help researchers make progress on complex problems across disciplines including mathematics, physics, chemistry and biology. The 20-page report highlights that scientists are increasingly turning to AI models to assist with literature synthesis, data interpretation and experiment planning, and emphasises that advancing AI's research capabilities could accelerate discovery and productivity in science and engineering.

OpenAI Pitches ChatGPT as a Scientific Collaborator

The report, which was exclusively shared with Axios, cites anonymised usage data showing that millions of scientists, engineers and mathematicians are already asking advanced questions and using AI to support scholarly work, ranging from drafting scientific text to debugging code and planning experiments. According to OpenAI's analysis, researchers mainly use AI for writing and communication tasks, while fewer use it for rigorous analysis and calculations, suggesting opportunities for deeper integration of AI into the research process.

OpenAI said that anonymised ChatGPT conversations between January to December 2025 shows that average weekly message counts on advanced science and mathematics-related topics grew about 47 percent year-on-year (YoY). In absolute numbers, the messages were claimed to increase from 5.7 million to nearly 8.4 million. In January 2026, the AI giant said that nearly 1.3 million weekly users were discussing advanced topics in science and mathematics.

“AI is increasingly being used as a scientific collaborator, and we're seeing its impact grow in real research settings. More researchers are using advanced reasoning systems to make progress on open problems, interpret complex data, and iterate faster in experimental work. That usage has been growing quickly over the past year, and the results are starting to show up across fields. We're still early, but the pace of adoption and the quality of the work suggest science is entering a new acceleration phase,” said Kevin Weil, VP of OpenAI for Science.

The notion of AI as a collaborator aligns with initiatives such as OpenAI for Science, a programme that seeks to connect scientists and mathematicians with AI tools designed to accelerate research workflows from literature analysis to modelling and simulation. OpenAI stated that its goal is to build systems that integrate naturally into scientific practice, helping researchers explore ideas, test hypotheses faster and unlock discoveries that might take years under traditional methods.