When OpenAI launched ChatGPT-5 in August of last year, many academics scoffed at the tech company’s claims its new artificial intelligence (AI) model possessed “PhD-level” intelligence.
After all, how could systems so prone to hallucination, flawed reasoning, and sycophancy compete with the world’s brightest young minds?
Yet academics are now routinely using tools such as ChatGPT to assist them in their research in much the same way they might once have relied on PhD students. Perhaps the most famous example is the world’s best-known mathematician, Terence Tao, who reports using generative AI as a mathematical collaborator.
