How AI Is Accelerating Scientific Discovery Today and What's Ahead — the OpenAI Podcast Ep. 10
AI is beginning to change how science gets done.
Head of OpenAI for Science Kevin Weil and OpenAI research scientist Alex Lupsasca talk about the early signs of acceleration researchers are seeing with GPT-5—from surfacing literature across fields and languages, to speeding up complex calculations, to designing follow-up experiments.
They unpack what’s possible today, what doesn’t work yet, and why the next few years could reshape the trajectory of scientific progress across physics, math, biology and beyond.
Chapters:
- 00:00:40 — OpenAI for Science mission
- 00:06:00 — Literature search and intersections across fields
- 00:11:19 — A fusion physicist shows what GPT-5 can do
- 00:15:08 — GPT-5 Pro and black hole symmetries
- 00:19:02 — Getting the most out of the models
- 00:24:33 — OpenAI’s new research paper (https://openai.com/index/accelerating-science-gpt-5/)
- 00:29:59 — Looking ahead to the next 5 years
- 00:32:05 — Will predictions outpace experiments?
- 00:36:43 — The pace of model improvement
- 00:40:31 — What do scientific benchmarks look like?
- 00:44:16 — Fusion and the promise of abundant energy
- 00:48:07 — Closing: Science 2.0 moment
AI is beginning to change how science gets done.
Head of OpenAI for Science Kevin Weil and OpenAI research scientist Alex Lupsasca talk about the early signs of acceleration researchers are seeing with GPT-5—from surfacing literature across fields and languages, to speeding up complex calculations, to designing follow-up experiments.
They unpack what’s possible today, what doesn’t work yet, and why the next few years could reshape the trajectory of scientific progress across physics, math, biology and beyond.
Chapters:
– 00:00:40 — OpenAI for Science mission
– 00:06:00 — Literature search and intersections across fields
– 00:11:19 — A fusion physicist shows what GPT-5 can do
– 00:15:08 — GPT-5 Pro and black hole symmetries
– 00:19:02 — Getting the most out of the models
– 00:24:33 — OpenAI’s new research paper (https://openai.com/index/accelerating-science-gpt-5/)
– 00:29:59 — Looking ahead to the next 5 years
– 00:32:05 — Will predictions outpace experiments?
– 00:36:43 — The pace of model improvement
– 00:40:31 — What do scientific benchmarks look like?
– 00:44:16 — Fusion and the promise of abundant energy
– 00:48:07 — Closing: Science 2.0 moment
