Exclusive / OpenAI funds new think tank projects

OpenAI is announcing the winners of its call for grant proposals to study the economic and societal impact of artificial intelligence, and to develop solutions to address disruptions.

According to details shared first with Semafor, recipients include US-based organizations across the political spectrum, like the American Enterprise Institute, the Progressive Policy Institute, the Tax Foundation, and the Nuclear Threat Initiative, as well as organizations in Europe, Brazil, Singapore, and South Korea.

Selected from submissions that OpenAI solicited earlier this year as part of a sweeping policy document, the 14 projects will collectively receive $1 million in funding in addition to up to $1 million in credits to use OpenAI’s models.

“To democratize the benefits of the Intelligence Age, we need policy ideas as ambitious and transformative as the technology itself,” said Chris Lehane, OpenAI’s chief global affairs officer. “Democracies need to decide how AI is deployed, and organizations like these can serve as laboratories of democracy that develop new ways to ensure AI’s gains reach the many, not just the few.”

The groups will all work on projects designed to “promote economic opportunity and societal resilience” in the age of AI, according to a blog post published Monday.

The projects vary. The funding AEI receives will go to a joint project between the conservative think tank and the liberal Urban Institute focused on AI’s disruption of the American workforce. The Progressive Policy Institute will use the funding to develop a new “person-based benefits system” for the AI economy.