What is OpenAI Prism? How this AI workspace works

OpenAI Prism: OpenAI has introduced a new AI-powered workspace – Prism that aims to help scientists draft, revise, and collaborate on research papers. The company said it seeks to reduce the hassles of the day-to-day operations of scientific research.

Prism is a free workspace for scientific writing and collaboration, with OpenAI’s latest model, GPT-5.2, integrated directly into the workflow. It brings drafting, revision, collaboration, and publication preparation into a single cloud-based, LaTeX-native workspace. The tool is available immediately for users with a ChatGPT Personal account, while its availability for organisations using ChatGPT Business, Enterprise, and Education plans is expected at a later date.

An Integrated AI-Native Research Workspace

Unlike traditional AI assistants, which work with documents, GPT-5.2 works within the project itself. This allows the model to understand the structure of a paper, including equations, references, figures, and surrounding context, and to directly modify and reason.

OpenAI said Prism is based on Crixet, a cloud-based LaTeX platform it previously acquired, and has since evolved into a unified product with AI integrated into the core writing process.

Prism allows researchers to interact with GPT-5.2 to explore ideas, test hypotheses, and reason about complex scientific problems while working within a manuscript. The platform helps draft and revise text with information from across the document, as well as create, modify, and reason about equations, quotes, and diagrams.

Along with that, Prism also allows users to search relevant academic literature, such as papers hosted on arXiv, and incorporate findings directly into the manuscript. In addition, researchers can convert handwritten equations or diagrams to LaTeX, reducing the time spent manually formatting technical material.

This workspace facilitates real-time collaboration, enabling co-authors, students, and advisors to edit, comment on, and revise documents simultaneously. An optional voice-based editing feature is also available to make simple changes without interrupting writing or reviewing.

OpenAI said Prism is designed with collaboration in mind, facilitating unlimited collaborators without any seat restrictions. Because this platform is cloud-based, research teams do not need to manage local LaTeX installations or software environments, which can often slow down collaboration across institutions and fields.

By reducing version conflicts and manual file merging, Prism allows teams to focus more on the substance of their research rather than the mechanics of document management, the company said.

Prism is free to use, with no subscription fees or collaborator limits for individual users.
OpenAI said its goal is to make high-quality scientific writing and collaboration tools more accessible across disciplines, institutions, and career stages. The company further said that over time, more advanced AI features will be introduced through paid ChatGPT plans.

OpenAI said it expects AI to play an ever-growing role in accelerating scientific discoveries, just as it has reshaped software development in recent years. The company believes that by reducing barriers to everyday research tasks, devices like Prism can help accelerate scientific progress.