OpenAI launched Prism on January 27, a cloud-based LaTeX workspace that embeds GPT-5.2 directly into the paper-writing workflow. The tool is free for anyone with a ChatGPT account.
Prism grew out of Crixet, a LaTeX platform OpenAI acquired and rebuilt with AI at its core. The pitch: instead of bouncing between editors, PDF readers, reference managers, and ChatGPT windows, researchers get everything in one place. GPT-5.2 can see the full document structure, equations, citations, and surrounding context when generating responses. That's a significant upgrade over pasting sections into a separate chat window.
The model handles the grunt work that slows researchers down. It can convert whiteboard sketches into TikZ diagrams, pull relevant literature from arXiv, and revise prose with full paper context. In a press demo, an OpenAI employee used it to auto-generate a bibliography from cited papers.
OpenAI executives compared Prism to coding tools like Cursor and Windsurf. "I think 2026 will be for AI and science what 2025 was for AI and software engineering," said Kevin Weill, VP of OpenAI for Science, per TechCrunch. The company says ChatGPT already receives 8.4 million weekly messages on hard science topics, though how many come from working researchers is anyone's guess. Business and Enterprise access is coming later, with "advanced features" promised for paid subscribers.
The Bottom Line: OpenAI acquired a LaTeX editor, plugged in GPT-5.2, and is giving it away free to build a foothold in academic workflows.
QUICK FACTS
- Launch date: January 27, 2026
- Price: Free for all ChatGPT personal account holders
- Model: GPT-5.2 (OpenAI's "most advanced" for math and science reasoning, company-reported)
- Built on: Crixet, a cloud LaTeX platform OpenAI acquired
- ChatGPT science queries: 8.4 million messages/week (OpenAI figure)
