Have an thought for an AI startup? OpenAI needs to provide you $1 million

ChatGPT-maker OpenAI is opening the door to potential startup founders — even these with none prior AI expertise or who don’t even use OpenAI services — to use to obtain a $1 million funding increase and unique informational and academic assets from its Startup Fund, in change for collaborating in a most six-hour-per-week, six-week-long program.

Final evening, OpenAI co-founder and CEO Sam Altman and CTO/former interim CEO Mira Murati posted a hyperlink on the social platform X to an OpenAI weblog put up asserting the launch of “Converge 2.”

This system, the second iteration of its form from the OpenAI Startup Fund following an inaugural session of Converge that launched a 12 months in the past in December 2022, invitations potential AI founder candidates from all over the world to use with solely a minimal quantity of details about themselves and their thought on OpenAI’s web site to obtain funding, in addition to teaching and experience to information the formation and development of their corporations.

After the appliance window closes, OpenAI’s Startup Fund will finally select between 10 and 15 totally different corporations to fund, every to the tune of $1 million. Whereas that isn’t that vital in a time when most startups announce seed rounds within the multi-millions, it’s after all massively useful to these within the pre-seed and earliest section of their ideation and firm constructing journeys.

The right way to apply

Even if you happen to haven’t written a line of code or raised a single greenback and your thought remains to be largely in your head, OpenAI needs to listen to from you, in keeping with its naked bones on-line software type.

Candidates simply want to supply their identify, a one-line description of their firm, hyperlinks to social profiles of founder candidates, and a hyperlink to a 30-second lengthy video pitching the thought.

Importantly, OpenAI additionally just isn’t mandating that candidates use, nor decide to utilizing, OpenAI’s software programming interfaces (APIs) for its hit merchandise GPT-3.5/4, ChatGPT Plus/Enterprise, Codex, DALL-E,

In truth, on the Converge 2 announcement webpage, OpenAI particularly addresses this query as a part of an FAQ (regularly requested questions), asking “Does my present or future product should be constructed on high of OpenAI’s APIs?” and answering, “No. This system is for anybody constructing (or aspiring to construct) on innovative AI fashions.”

The applying window is open now by means of January 26, 2024. Merely fill out the shape on-line right here.

What Converge 2 affords potential startup founders

This system itself will run from March 11 to April 19, 2024. Whereas the dedication is ready at 4-6 hours per week, it may be achieved remotely, with solely the primary and final weeks of this system structured as in-person occasions in San Francisco, with journey prices coated by OpenAI.

The intermediate weeks provide flexibility for distant participation, though in-person attendance is very advisable.

The six-week program is structured to supply a studying and improvement expertise. Individuals will have interaction in tech talks, workplace hours, and social occasions. They’ll even have the chance to work together with main AI practitioners and startup founders, gaining insights into probably the most urgent alternatives and challenges of AI improvement.

Considerably, prior expertise with AI programs just isn’t a prerequisite, opening this system to a broader vary of innovators.

This strategy aligns with OpenAI’s imaginative and prescient of selling variety within the AI subject, particularly encouraging founders from underrepresented backgrounds and people primarily based exterior the USA.

Reflecting a dedication to variety and inclusivity, Converge 2 encourages purposes from founders of all backgrounds.