OpenAI is attempting to level up developers and enable them to use AI to solve issues in their communities and drive economic growth.
OpenAI Academy is a new program that will provide technical guidance and support from OpenAI experts, distribute $1 million in API credits (with more potentially being added later), hold contests and incubator programs in partnership with investors, and build a global network of developers to collaborate, share knowledge, and drive innovation together.
According to the company, the Academy will start in low- and middle-income countries for now. “Many countries have fast-growing technology sectors with talented developers and innovative organizations, but access to advanced training and technical resources remains limited. Investing in the development of local AI talent can fuel economic growth and innovation across sectors like healthcare, agriculture, education, and finance,” OpenAI wrote in a post.
In its announcement, OpenAI also highlighted the fact that it has donated API credits and technical assistance to the winners of The Tools Competition, turn.io Chat for Impact contest, and other organizations working to address community challenges around the world.
It also translated the Massive Multitask Language Understanding (MMLU) benchmark into 14 languages, including Arabic, Bengali, Chinese, French, German, Hindi, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish, Swahili, and Yoruba.
“Supporting those who understand the unique cultures, economies, and social dynamics of their communities will help ensure that AI applications are tailored to meet local needs. Developers and organizations are key to making artificial intelligence more widely accessible and enabling people around the world—regardless of where they live or what language they speak—to use the technology to solve hard problems,” the company concluded.