# Research acceleration: The view inside OpenAI > Source: > Published: 2026-09-06 23:57:40+00:00 [Research acceleration: The view inside OpenAI](https://openai.com/index/research-acceleration-view-inside-openai/) Included are details on how OpenAI's own research team are using coding agents. Like pretty much everyone else 2026 has been the year that agentic engineering really took off at OpenAI, best illustrated by this chart: I'm intrigued at what caused that significant acceleration in AI spend per researcher in late July - my best guess is that's when internal employees gained access to the model later released as GPT-6 Astra. Tags: [ai](https://simonwillison.net/tags/ai), [openai](https://simonwillison.net/tags/openai), [generative-ai](https://simonwillison.net/tags/generative-ai), [chatgpt](https://simonwillison.net/tags/chatgpt), [llms](https://simonwillison.net/tags/llms), [coding-agents](https://simonwillison.net/tags/coding-agents), [november-2025-inflection](https://simonwillison.net/tags/november-2025-inflection), [recursive-self-improvement](https://simonwillison.net/tags/recursive-self-improvement)