On 4 March 2025, OpenAI launched the NextGenAI consortium, partnering with 15 leading research institutions to accelerate the educational and research use of artificial intelligence. The company is investing $50 million in research grants, computational resources, and API access to support researchers, educators, and students. Through this initiative, OpenAI’s technology will become available to over one million students, teachers, and administrators across 13 universities.
The NextGenAI consortium brings together renowned institutions including Harvard University, MIT, and the University of Oxford, each applying AI to tackle diverse challenges, from healthcare to education. At Harvard and Boston Children’s Hospital, researchers are using OpenAI tools to reduce diagnostic times, particularly for rare diseases. The University of Oxford is digitising and transcribing rare texts housed in the Bodleian Library, while Ohio State University applies AI in digital healthcare, advanced therapies, and manufacturing. AI would not be where it is today without decades of work by the academic community. Continued collaboration is essential to building AI that benefits everyone, said Brad Lightcap, OpenAI’s Chief Operating Officer.
The initiative expands on OpenAI’s ChatGPT Edu programme, launched in May 2024, which provided university-level access to ChatGPT. Beyond education, NextGenAI supports researchers seeking cures, scientists uncovering new insights, and students learning to use AI for future applications. OpenAI will evaluate the success of the consortium to determine whether to extend it to additional institutions, further strengthening the partnership between academia and industry.
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Explore OpenAI’s next generation of AI models designed to improve reasoning, usability and performance.
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OpenAI partners globally to bring AI-powered tools to classrooms through a $50M initiative.
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