OpenAI announced on Tuesday the launch of NextGenAI, a new consortium comprising 15 research institutions aimed at accelerating scientific breakthroughs and transforming education through artificial intelligence. OpenAI said it is committing USD 50 million in research grants, compute funding, and API access to support students, educators, and researchers with AI tools and knowledge.
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OpenAI Unveils NextGenAI to Drive AI Innovation
“AI has the power to drive progress in research and education—but only when people have the right tools to harness it,” OpenAI said in a blog post.
Quoting the company’s post, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said on X, “excited for this—advancing research and education with AI.”
“This initiative is built not only to fuel the next generation of discoveries but also to prepare the next generation to shape AI’s future,” OpenAI wrote in a blog post.
“NextGenAI is designed to support the scientist searching for a cure, the scholar uncovering new insights, and the student mastering AI for the world ahead…As we learn from this initiative, we’ll explore opportunities to expand its reach and impact.”
NextGenAI’s Founding Partners
NextGenAI’s 15 founding partners include Caltech, the California State University system, Duke University, the University of Georgia, Harvard University, Howard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Michigan, the University of Mississippi, The Ohio State University, the University of Oxford, Sciences Po, Texas A&M University, as well as Boston Children’s Hospital, the Boston Public Library, and OpenAI.
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Commitment to Education and Research Expansion
“The field of AI wouldn’t be where it is today without decades of work in the academic community. Continued collaboration is essential to build AI that benefits everyone. NextGenAI will accelerate research progress and catalyze a new generation of institutions equipped to harness the transformative power of AI,” said Brad Lightcap, Chief Operating Officer of OpenAI.
OpenAI said this initiative expands its commitment to education, following the launch of ChatGPT Edu in May 2024, which enabled university-wide access to ChatGPT.
AI in Research and Education
The Ohio State University is leveraging AI to accelerate the fields of digital health, advanced therapeutics, manufacturing, energy, mobility, and agriculture, while educators are using AI to create advanced learning models, OpenAI said.
Harvard University and Boston Children’s Hospital researchers are using OpenAI tools and NextGenAI funding to reduce the time it takes patients to find the right diagnosis, especially for rare orphan diseases, and improve AI alignment with human values in medical decision-making.
Duke University scientists are using AI to pioneer metascience research, identifying the fields of science where AI can have the greatest benefit.
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Empowering the next generation to be AI-fluent
Texas A&M is using NextGenAI resources to fuel their Generative AI Literacy Initiative, providing hands-on training to enhance the responsible use of AI in academic settings, Highlighted OpenAI.
MIT students and faculty will be able to use OpenAI’s API and compute funding to train and fine-tune their own AI models and develop new applications.
Howard will use AI to develop curricula, experiment with new teaching methods, improve university operations, and give students hands-on AI experience to prepare them as future leaders.
AI-powered Universities and Libraries
University of Oxford is leveraging AI for a broad research agenda, education, and university operations—its renowned Bodleian Library is digitizing rare texts and using OpenAI’s API to transcribe them, making centuries-old knowledge newly searchable by scholars worldwide.
University of Mississippi is exploring new ways to integrate AI into their core mission of education, research, and service, and to advance AI-driven solutions that benefit their students, faculty, and the broader community.
Boston Public Library, America’s first large free municipal public library, is digitizing public domain materials and using AI to make their information more accessible to patrons from all walks of life, according to OpenAI’s blogpost.
