Like many scientists, theoretical physicist Andrew Strominger was unimpressed with early attempts at probing ChatGPT, receiving clever-sounding answers that didn't stand up to scrutiny. So he was skeptical when a talented former graduate student paused a promising academic career to take a job with OpenAI. Strominger told him physics needed him more than Silicon Valley.
Note that OpenAI has been sponsoring scientific/math research and looking for things like this, exactly for this kind of “see! We’re not boiling the ocean for nothing! Give us more money” payoff.