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Research acceleration: The view inside OpenAI

SpeculationResearchSep 6, 2026

OpenAI Chief Scientist Jakub Pachocki published a new essay, An Alien Mind, alongside another piece discussing Recursive Self-Improvement (RSI), referred to internally as "RSI day." The article describes how OpenAI's research teams use coding agents, noting 2026 as the year agentic engineering expanded at the company. A chart shows a sharp rise in AI spend per researcher in late July, which the author speculates reflects internal employee access to the model later released as GPT-6 Astra.

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Citation chain · 1 source

OpenAICompanyClaudeModelGPT-6 AstraModelJakub PachockiPerson
Canonical: https://simonwillison.net/2026/Sep/6/research-acceleration-the-view-inside-openai/