OpenAI Will Invest $50 Million In A New University Research Consortium

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OpenAI , the artificial intelligence research company, is investing $50 million in a new 15-institution research consortium aimed at exploring how AI can advance knowledge in several fields.

The NextGenAI consortium is intended to “catalyze progress at a rate faster than any one institution would alone,” according to the company’s announcement. It’s the latest entry for the company into the higher education space, following its introduction of ChatGPT Edu last May. “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,” wrote OpenAI.

NextGenAI’s founding partners are 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.

Each institution will use AI to explore challenges in one of several fields. Here are a few examples.

• The Ohio State University will use AI to advance progress in digital health and advanced therapeutics, among other areas.
• Harvard University and Boston Children’s Hospital researchers will use 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. ”
• NextGenAI resources will help Texas A&M with its Generative AI Literacy Initiative, providing students with hands-on training in the responsible use of AI in academic settings.
• Howard University will use AI to develop curricula, innovate new teaching methods, improve university operations, and give students hands-on AI experience.
• The University of Oxford will deploy AI across a broad research agenda, including using it to digitize and transcribe rare texts at its Bodleian Library.

“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,” Brad Lightcap, chief operating officer of OpenAI, said in the release. “NextGenAI will accelerate research progress and catalyze a new generation of institutions equipped to harness the transformative power of AI.”

Open AI’s products include ChatGPT, DALL-E 3, Sora and Whisper. Its current evaluation, according to the Wall Street Journal, could top $300 billion, as it seeks to raise $40 billion in a new funding round.

The announcement by OpenAI, who initial investors included Sam Altman and Elon Musk at its founding in 2015, comes as the Trump administration has apparently dismissed several AI experts at the National Science Foundation, raising questions about the federal government’s future support for AI research.

As Tekedia noted, “with NextGenAI, OpenAI could help bridge this funding gap, especially if federal grants and resources become scarcer. However, the initiative also underscores a broader trend where private companies increasingly step into roles traditionally filled by public institutions.”