Accelerate scientific research with Codex

A researcher uses Codex and ChatGPT extensively for scientific research, getting a week's work done in a day, though recent usage limits reduced output.

What They Did

A theoretical chemist says they used ChatGPT and Codex heavily in a research workflow built around quantum-mechanical simulations of molecules, excitations, and spin behavior. In a follow-up comment, they say they reworked the setup to use one model for most analysis, another as a final reviewer and coordinator, and a cheaper model for routine jobs like starting and stopping calculations, copying files, and parsing data, while they chose when to escalate harder reasoning.

How It Went

They report unprecedented productivity over the past year, saying the tools let them do far more research than in 10+ years before, but that recently the same work now burns through a weekly allowance in a day. OpenAI later told them a bug affected their usage and gave them $500 in credits; they say they had previously burned through $3,000 in credits quickly too.

Worth Knowing

The main catch is cost and limits: they now check cost-to-performance before each run and say they have had to scale back usage because the expense is no longer sustainable.