The University of Mississippi announced last week that the university is among a small group of institutions across the globe invited to join NextGenAI – a $50 million initiative that aims to advance artificial intelligence research and education.
The initiative is headed by OpenAI, who announced the consortium on March 4. Ole Miss is the only university in Mississippi to be selected for the collaboration and one of three Southeastern Conference schools.
NextGenAI will provide a $50,000 grant to Ole Miss to fund research through the National Center of Narrative Intelligence in partnership with the Center for Practical Ethics and the Institute for Data Science.
“This grant is going to allow us to support interdisciplinary, collaborative research,” Wes Jennings, co-director of the National Center for Narrative Intelligence (NCNI) at Ole Miss. “We want to kick-start ideas and provide resources that can help those working with AI with campus.”
The collaboration, which includes Duke University, Ohio State University, and Harvard University, will connect 15 total institutions to support AI-driven research in multiple fields. The research will focus primarily on driving progress in science, medicine, technology, and education.
“A close collaboration with universities is essential to our mission of building AI that benefits everyone,” Brad Lightcap, chief operating officer of OpenAI, said. “NextGenAI will accelerate research progress and catalyze a new generation of institutions equipped to harness to the transformative power of AI.”
The NCNI will hold a competitive grant process to identify projects by Ole Miss researchers that would benefit from OpenAI’s support. Jennings believes the research can make a big difference in a changing world.
“We know that AI can do things in minutes that would take researchers hundreds of hours to do by hand,” Jennings said. “It’s a tool; let’s use it to solve grand challenges nimbly and with efficiency. We’re looking for bright ideas and bright minds to work on them.”
