An article summarized by Axios:
OpenAI is launching a new program that will give 100,000 academic researchers free access to its most advanced AI models through 2027. Researchers in fields including biology, chemistry, computer science, engineering, mathematics and physics will receive access roughly equivalent to a $200-per-month ChatGPT Pro account, with the ability to invite four collaborators from their institution. OpenAI says the program will protect researchers’ data with business-grade privacy and will not use their work to train its models.
The first 10,000 researchers will begin receiving access this summer at institutions including the Institute for Advanced Study and France’s École normale supérieure, with the program expanding through 2027. OpenAI says the initiative is part of a broader commitment to invest more than $250 million in external scientific research and discovery. The company hopes its AI tools can help researchers make breakthroughs in areas ranging from mathematics and physics to drug discovery and biology.
However, the program does not solve a major concern among AI researchers: access to the underlying model weights and training data. OpenAI and other AI companies argue that keeping those systems closed helps prevent misuse, while researchers say limited access makes independent testing, reproducibility and safety research more difficult. The program therefore expands access to OpenAI's most powerful tools without opening up the underlying technology itself.
