How OpenAI’s $10,000 Grants Are Empowering Students to Innovate with AI

When University of Pennsylvania student Crystal Yang was in high school, she and her friends were avid players of the trendy online game Wordle. However, one of Yang’s friends is blind and unable to participate. This inspired Yang, while still a high school student, to collaborate with researchers at Texas A&M University to explore conversational audio interface possibilities for the game.

Soon after, she founded a nonprofit called Audemy, which has developed more than 50 audio-powered games accessible to blind and visually impaired players. The organization is now developing an accessible gaming console featuring audio and tactile elements, designed to function without Wi-Fi.

Artificial intelligence has played a pivotal role in Yang’s work, from coding and project management to user research and formal documentation. AI has also assisted in generating new game ideas, adapting existing templates, and evaluating potential components for the console prototype.

“It’s been a very helpful tool throughout, allowing me to champion the issues I’m passionate about, as well as continue using it to multiply my capabilities.”

OpenAI’s ChatGPT Futures Program: Recognizing AI Innovators

The graduating class of 2026 is the first cohort of university students to have had access to ChatGPT—which debuted publicly in fall 2022—throughout nearly their entire college experience. Leah Belsky, head of education at OpenAI, notes that these students are using AI to achieve what many previously deemed impossible.

Other recipients of the $10,000 grants are leveraging AI in diverse fields:

• Building space robots to automate routine astronaut tasks;
• Developing methods to detect disaster survivors through walls and debris using Wi-Fi signals;
• Creating tools to help older adults avoid online scams;
• Enabling Latin American street vendors to track their finances;
• Advancing AI applications in science and medicine, including predicting protein functions, connecting people with mental health resources, and optimizing drug production.

AI in Healthcare: Revolutionizing Disease Research and Treatment

Ayush Noori, who holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Harvard University and is currently pursuing a doctorate as a Rhodes Scholar at the University of Oxford, developed a graph AI model called Proton. This model generates hypotheses around neurological diseases.

Noori’s work is driven in part by his experience caring for his late grandmother, who had a rare neurodegenerative disease. Proton has already shown promise in suggesting candidate drugs for bipolar disorder and Alzheimer’s disease, with results validated through experiments on lab-grown brain tissue and health record analysis.

“My mission is to develop AI systems that transform the understanding, diagnosis, and treatment of neurological disease and other currently unsolved medical conditions.”

Belsky emphasizes the transformative potential of these young innovators, stating that their projects demonstrate how AI can address some of society’s most pressing challenges.