| ▲ | vthallam 3 hours ago |
| @NotOscarWilde drop your email here, I will reach out and happy to get you a pro account for a few months so you can try 5.5 pro.(work at OAI) |
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| ▲ | teiferer an hour ago | parent | next [-] |
| While this sounds generous (and in some ways it is), it does not address the general point that GP is making. That is, the systematic disadvantage which large parts of humanity have w.r.t. to access to the tools. You could say they can't drive a Lambhorgini either, but that also doesn't solve the problem. |
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| ▲ | NotOscarWilde 10 minutes ago | parent | next [-] | | You're absolutely right (pun intended). An aside: It was a very nice gesture and completely unexpected by me, so even if it doesn't work out, it made my day. I personally believe that kind gestures have a lot of power. There is a real danger of the gap between rich and poor universities significantly widening in all fields if the rich can afford Pro level models, or even hardware that can run their own comparable models, and this being fiscally inaccessible to the rest. One can sweep this under the rug by blaming the educational funding but this just shoots down all discussion. Even if GDP of a country goes up by a lot -- such as Poland -- it takes time before any budget benefit trickles to the education budget, and with some governments it might never do. I believe Microsoft et al do have the most power here to boost affordable access to AI for researchers on a large scale; the fact that they cut too expensive models from their academic package is a grim omen. I do realize they would like universities to pay them also, and ultimately the universities should do that -- but then we are back at the institutional level of the problem. | |
| ▲ | Scea91 an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | Its a problem of the individual institutions and countries. The budget required for AI tools currently is negligible compared to other university expenses. We don't need to call everything a systemic disadvantage when the disadvantaged (at the institution level) have agency here. | | |
| ▲ | NotOscarWilde 41 minutes ago | parent [-] | | Can you tell me what is the budget necessary to supply AI tools capable of substantial research assistance to all academic staff at a university? You seem to have a good estimate in your head; I definitely do not. From personal experience, ChatGPT 5.5 (the Plus tier) is excellent for programming tasks and also for various teaching related tasks but I have not observed the research benefits that Tim Gowers has when I asked it questions in my area of expertise. So the costs are definitely higher than a few dozen $ a month per PhD/professor. You might be right that universities should immediately spring into action and demand funding for research level AI resources and hardware. One thing you might be mistaken in is that public universities are unfortunately very inflexible institutions; one reason for this is that they have a large internal leadership structure AND they are funded by the state, so even if the entire university agrees on something, the funding is at the whim of the ministry of education and thus the current political leadership. | | |
| ▲ | krab 23 minutes ago | parent [-] | | > Can you tell me what is the budget necessary to supply AI tools capable of substantial research assistance to all academic staff at a university? I think the GP meant that *if the tools provide substantial benefit* to staff, their costs can be compared to salaries and other large expenses of the university. The $100/month subscription costs less than your office space. |
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| ▲ | snayan 18 minutes ago | parent | prev [-] | | I mean, I don't think OpenAI should be wading into the policies and practices of foreign institutions and governments. Look at all the blowback we see from the collision of Anthropic or OpenAI and the US government. At present, the tools are available for whomever wants to buy them. Not OpenAI's fault that parent comment's government and/or institutions policies haven't been updated to allow for their purchase and use. I'd argue that the OpenAI dude/dudettes level of generosity is appropriate given the circumstances. |
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| ▲ | NotOscarWilde 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| This requires a major "dox" of myself, but I am really grateful for the offer, so these are my academic contacts: https://pastebin.com/hNYrCjhL I probably will erase the contents in a few days. Even if you just drop an email and it doesn't work out, I appreciate this gesture so much. Thank you. |
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| ▲ | thierrydamiba 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-] |
| Shoutout to you-I will match it if they need other resources. (I don’t work at OAI, just think this is cool) |
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| ▲ | NotOscarWilde 6 minutes ago | parent | next [-] | | I will leave the contact up for a bit longer if people want to get in touch and share their experience with the research gap of the models -- or anything, really -- but I do not think there is any need of further support. Like I said elsewhere, the offer of support made my day and the gesture is enough. | |
| ▲ | alsetmusic 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | You know what, I'm ashamed that I didn't think of this. I'll sponsor three months. Email in my hn profile. I don't understand the math in the article, but I'd love to help you make progress in it. | | |
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