OpenAI, an artificial intelligence (AI) company, has unveiled two new initiatives to expand its ChatGPT services to universities and nonprofit organizations.
One of these initiatives is called “ChatGPT Edu,” which is a version of the AI language model specifically designed for use by students, faculty, researchers, and in campus operations at universities. OpenAI emphasizes that this offering comes with enterprise-level security and controls and is affordable for educational institutions.
A blog post by the company highlighted several current use cases for ChatGPT at the university level. It mentioned prestigious institutions such as Oxford, Wharton, University of Texas at Austin, Arizona State University, and Columbia University as users of the service. For instance, researchers at Columbia are utilizing ChatGPT to develop strategies to prevent drug overdoses. Meanwhile, an assistant professor at Arizona State has created a “GPT Buddy” using the service, enabling students learning German to practice their language skills in a conversational manner at their convenience.
The ChatGPT Edu initiative received enthusiastic support from Kyle Bowen, Deputy CIO at Arizona State University, as per the blog post.
In addition to ChatGPT Edu, OpenAI has also introduced an initiative to provide tools and support to nonprofits at reduced costs for ChatGPT usage. Nonprofits can now access the ChatGPT Team service at a discounted fee of $20 per user per month, with the possibility of a 50% discount for larger nonprofits that are prepared for large-scale deployment.
Both ChatGPT Edu and ChatGPT for Nonprofits offer access to the latest models, including GPT-4o, as well as various services and features such as image generation, collaborative workspaces, and custom GPTs.
In related news, OpenAI recently made its GPT-4o model available to unpaid users, granting them access to search and load custom GPTs, generate images (including charts and graphs), upload files, and integrate web responses. However, users in this tier will still need to subscribe to a paid tier to create their own custom GPTs and avoid message limits on the GPT-4o model.