OpenAI has announced a $50 million investment in NextGenAI, a new research consortium comprising 15 institutions—many of which are colleges and universities—aimed at accelerating artificial intelligence research across multiple disciplines.
The initiative is designed to “catalyze progress at a rate faster than any one institution would alone,” according to an announcement by OpenAI. It follows the company’s recent expansion into higher education with the launch 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,” OpenAI stated.
NextGenAI’s founding members include universities, research centers, and public institutions from the United States and abroad. Among them are the California Institute of Technology, the California State University system, Duke University, Harvard University, Howard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Georgia, the University of Michigan, the University of Mississippi, the University of Oxford, The Ohio State University, the Paris Institute of Political Studies (Sciences Po), and Texas A&M University. Boston Children’s Hospital, the Boston Public Library, and OpenAI itself are also part of the initiative.
Each institution will apply AI tools to address specific challenges in its field. The Ohio State University, for example, will explore advancements in digital health and therapeutics. Harvard University and Boston Children’s Hospital researchers will focus on reducing diagnosis times for rare diseases and aligning AI with human values in medical decision-making. Texas A&M University will use NextGenAI funding to expand its Generative AI Literacy Initiative, which educates students on responsible AI use in academia. Howard University aims to integrate AI into curricula, teaching methods, and university operations, while the University of Oxford will leverage AI to digitize and transcribe rare texts housed in 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,” said OpenAI Chief Operating Officer Brad Lightcap. “NextGenAI will accelerate research progress and catalyze a new generation of institutions equipped to harness the transformative power of AI.”
The initiative comes as OpenAI continues to expand its influence in the AI sector. According to The Wall Street Journal, the company, known for developing ChatGPT, DALL-E 3, Sora, and Whisper, is seeking to raise $40 billion in a new funding round, potentially pushing its valuation above $300 billion.
