Ohio State joins NextGenAI consortium for breakthrough AI research

The Ohio State University is joining 14 other leading research institutions in a partnership with OpenAI to advance research and education in AI.

The NextGenAI consortium is sponsored by up to $50 million from OpenAI in support of access to leading AI tools and funding, which can be used for research grants, computing to train and fine-tune existing university models, and other initiatives.

“Ohio State is at the forefront of a multidisciplinary approach to the benefits of AI, significantly impacting both research and education,” said Peter Mohler, Ohio State’s executive vice president for research, innovation and knowledge. “We are excited to join OpenAI and this elite research partnership, which will enable us to drive even more groundbreaking discoveries and advancements in medicine, manufacturing, computing, and beyond."

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

NextGenAI’s mission is to support the next generation of research breakthroughs, the next generation of leaders and the next generation of universities with AI. By putting OpenAI’s technology in the hands of more students, educators and researchers, the consortium hopes to drive progress in science, medicine, technology and education at a rate no institution could achieve alone.

In addition to Ohio State, founding NextGenAI 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 University of Oxford, Sciences Po, Texas A&M University, as well as Boston Children’s Hospital, the Boston Public Library and OpenAI. All of these institutions are using AI to solve problems that matter to them.

At Ohio State, researchers are embracing AI to accelerate advancements in digital health, advanced therapeutics, manufacturing, energy, mobility and agriculture, while educators are using AI to create advanced learning models. The Timashev Center for Software Innovation is propelling the university and region forward in these efforts and positioning Ohio State to be a hub for growth in the rapidly expanding global digital economy.

Researchers at Harvard University and Boston Children’s Hospital are using AI to reduce the time it takes physicians to find the right diagnosis, especially for rare and orphan diseases. Duke is studying metascience – how scientific progress happens – identifying the fields where AI can have the greatest impact and exploring new models for collaboration between public and private sectors.

Other projects include Texas A&M using NextGenAI support for its Generative Artificial Intelligence Literacy Initiative, which aims to enhance understanding and responsible use of AI within the academic community. And MIT and Howard University are providing students and educators with access to OpenAI’s API to enable them to build their own AI models and applications.

NextGenAI builds on OpenAI’s commitment to education with products like ChatGPT Edu, built to enable campus-wide access to the latest AI models. “AI-powered universities” have since emerged, with Arizona State University and the California State University System making AI as integral to their campuses as the internet.