OpenAI Launches Prism, a Tool That Will Change How Scientists Handle the Daily Grind of Research Papers

Keeping up with the endless stream of research papers just got a little easier thanks to Prism, OpenAI’s new tool that changes the game for scientists. This free workspace integrates writing, editing, collaboration, and even literature searches into a single, cloud-based location. No more juggling several programs for LaTeX editing and other tasks; everything now lives together, powered by OpenAI’s latest innovation, GPT-5.2, which has significantly improved its math and scientific reasoning compared to previous releases.

Scientists spend a big part of their time on chores that, frankly, have very little to do with actually getting the science done. They’re stuck preparing equations, tracking down citations, combining co-author modifications, and rewriting sections to fit the style of the journal they’re attempting to publish in. Prism makes short work of it all. Users launch a project in their browser (no downloads or setup required) and begin drafting in LaTeX right away. GPT-5.2 is already integrated in the document and monitors the entire project, including text, equations, graphics, and references. Want it to propose changes to a paragraph? The model will generate ideas that are perfectly suited to the paper’s tone and structure. Need to strengthen an argument? It will swoop in and grab up some relevant papers from arXiv, provide suggestions for what to include, and automatically format the citations for you.

Collaboration is also simple, so there’s no need to worry about limited seating or paywalls. Invite as many co-authors as you like, and everyone will see real-time edits, comments, and live revisions, with no version conflicts to worry about. There is already a biologist at Fox Chase Cancer Center who utilizes comparable AI to save time combing through material and deleting irrelevant references. Then there’s a statistician at UC Berkeley who uses it to edit papers, correct math errors, and provide concise summaries of new studies.

It goes beyond simply editing text, as users can take a snapshot of a whiteboard doodle, upload it, and GPT-5.2 will convert the scrawled equations or diagrams into appropriate LaTeX code and figures for them. If you’re dictating modifications as you go, don’t worry; the model allows you to do it with voice commands, leaving your hands free for finer adjustments. Even hypothesis testing is now conversational; simply ask the model about a proof notion and watch it break it down step by step. Then, once you’ve identified the most important points, simply incorporate them into the manuscript.

OpenAI created Prism by taking what they already had and transforming it into something far more impressive: a strong cloud LaTeX editor with a lot more going on. Kevin Weil, the head of OpenAI’s science initiatives, believes that by 2026, AI will have progressed from being a helpful sidekick to a fundamental part of how research is conducted, much as it did for software developers last year.

Access to all of this is absolutely free; all you need is a standard ChatGPT account. Go to prism.openai.com, log in, and you can begin working on projects right away, with no restrictions on the number of documents or collaborators you can include. If you upgrade to a commercial ChatGPT subscription, the model becomes much more robust in the long run, but the free version is more than plenty to get you started.