Positioning AI as a public-capacity tool, OpenAI is stepping up outreach to governments to support more data centre development and wider use of artificial intelligence in areas like education, health, and disaster preparedness.
The initiative, named OpenAI for Countries, is designed to expand OpenAI’s product reach and reduce the gap between nations with strong AI access and those still building capacity. The company also wants governments and users to go beyond basic use, saying AI systems can do more advanced work than many people currently expect. “Most countries are still operating far short of what today’s AI systems make possible,” OpenAI said in a report shared with a news agency.
OpenAI began the international push last year and brought in former British finance minister George Osborne to lead the effort in December. Osborne and Chris Lehane, OpenAI’s chief global affairs officer, are presenting the plan to government officials this week in Davos.
The project supports OpenAI’s broader strategy as the maker of ChatGPT remains a central player in the AI boom. The company was most recently valued at $500 billion and is exploring a public offering that could be worth up to $1 trillion.
So far, 11 countries have joined OpenAI for Countries, with each partnership set up differently. Estonia is rolling out OpenAI’s education product, ChatGPT Edu, in secondary schools nationwide. In Norway and the United Arab Emirates, OpenAI is partnering with other companies to build data centres and will act as their first customer.
On Wednesday, OpenAI executives said they want to work with governments on more areas, including disaster planning. In South Korea, OpenAI is exploring a partnership with the government’s water authority to develop a real-time water-disaster warning and defence system to address climate change-driven water risks.
The report also flagged uneven usage patterns. It said its “power users” in the 95th percentile use advanced reasoning capabilities 7 times more often than typical users. It also pointed to differences within countries, noting that in Singapore, users send more than 3 times as many coding-related messages as the overall average, despite broad access to AI tools.
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