OpenAI Introduces Academy to Invest in Developers Across the World  

The company has launched OpenAI Academy, an initiative to invest and support the developer community and organisations leveraging AI. 

The company shared details in a blog, stating that this initiative builds on OpenAI’s long-standing support for AI developers and organisations working on the front lines. It will start with low- and middle-income countries. 

The goal is to invest in local AI talent that can fuel economic growth and innovation across sectors. Tailored specifically for local needs, OpenAI wants its AI applications to be contextual to the particular economy and culture.  

OpenAI is yet to share details about how to access the Academy’s resources. On the whole, it would include the following:

• Training and Technical Guidance: Support from OpenAI experts for developers and mission-driven organisations leveraging AI.

• API Credits: Distributing an initial $1 million in API credits to expand access to OpenAI models, enabling participants to build and deploy innovative applications.

• Community Building: Fostering a global network of developers to collaborate, share knowledge, and drive collective innovation.

• Contests and Incubators: Partnering with philanthropists to invest in organisations solving challenges at the front lines of their communities.

Solving Real World Problems in AI and Education

According to the blog, OpenAI believes that regardless of where you live or the language you speak – learning should not stop. The company noted that over the past year, investments in AI education, resources, and community-building has led to an outsized impact. 

For example, KOBI, the winner of the OpenAI prize at The Tools Competition, uses AI to help students with dyslexia learn to read. I-Stem, one of the winners of the turn.io Chat for Impact contest uses AI to enhance access to inaccessible content designed to help blind and low-vision communities in India find meaningful employment.

OpenAI has provided API credits and technical guidance to support the winning organisation. Earlier this year, OpenAI released ChatGPT Edu, a version of ChatGPT built for universities to responsibly deploy AI for students, faculty, researchers, and campus operations. 

OpenAI is also offering translations of the Massive Multitask Language Understanding (MMLU) benchmark, a measure of general AI intelligence, into 14 languages: Arabic, Bengali, Chinese, French, German, Hindi, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish, Swahili, and Yoruba.