OpenAI is now funding the think tanks that write AI policy — fourteen of them, left and right
OpenAI named the winners of its call for research proposals on 17 August: 14 projects will share $1 million in cash plus up to $1 million in credits to use OpenAI's models, chosen from more than 400 applications. The recipients deliberately span the American political spectrum — the American Enterprise Institute on the right, the Progressive Policy Institute on the left, plus the Tax Foundation and the Nuclear Threat Initiative — and extend to organisations in the European Union, Brazil, Singapore and South Korea. The projects address two questions the company set: how AI can broaden economic opportunity, and how societies can build resilience as capabilities advance.
Why it mattersThe sums are small — an average of about $71,000 per project — but the money is not the point. Think tank papers are what legislators' staff read when a bill is being drafted, and OpenAI has just put its name on fourteen future citations across four continents and both American parties. Nothing here is hidden; the funding is announced. The thing to carry forward is a habit: when a study on AI and jobs appears in the next two years, check the acknowledgements before you weigh the conclusion.
Read in the app — free, in 9 languages
Related stories
Nevada just cleared up to 8,000 driverless taxis for Las Vegas — Tesla's ceiling went from 10 to 5,000 in five weeks2026-08-21OpenAI has started a team whose stated worry is that a company like OpenAI ends up with too much power
2026-08-21OpenAI says it can police misuse without keeping your company's data — and it is pointing at Anthropic while saying so
2026-08-20A Florida officer ran his ex-wife's plate 717 times. A Kansas city has just switched its cameras off.
2026-08-20Six months ago Hollywood sent ByteDance a cease-and-desist. This week they signed a truce — and no money changed hands.
2026-08-20