ASU and OpenAI Partner to Rethink What’s Possible in Higher Education
What happens when one of the nation’s most innovative public universities teams up with the world’s most advanced AI research company? At Arizona State University, it means asking bold questions, exploring uncharted potential, and reshaping the future of learning.
This spring, ASU becomes the first university to collaborate with OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT. But this partnership isn’t about novelty—it’s about purpose. It’s about bringing ChatGPT Enterprise to campus not as a curiosity, but as a catalyst.
The goal? Empower faculty and staff to thoughtfully integrate generative AI into the heart of teaching, research, and university operations—with security, privacy, and responsible innovation leading the way.
“...our commitment is not to fear it or avoid it, but to engage with it—directly, responsibly, and with the goal of helping students learn faster and better.”, said ASU President Michael M. Crow
Moving from Potential to Practice
Starting in February of 2024, ASU, opened an idea challenge—an invitation to faculty and staff to imagine how this powerful technology can be applied in real-world academic settings. The university is focusing its attention on three areas where impact can be immediate and measurable:
- Helping students succeed personally and professionally.
- Unlocking new directions in research.
- Streamlining internal systems and processes to free up human energy for higher-value work.
By empowering its community to shape how ChatGPT Enterprise is used, ASU is treating generative AI not as a product to consume, but as a platform to co-create.
“ASU is showing what it looks like to lead in innovation,” said Brad Lightcap, Chief Operating Officer at OpenAI. “We’re excited to see how the university community puts ChatGPT to work—and to learn from their insights.”
Security First, Discovery Always
A critical part of this partnership is trust. With ChatGPT Enterprise, ASU users’ data stays private and secure, prompts are not used to train OpenAI’s models. This gives educators and researchers the freedom to explore with confidence, knowing their ideas and intellectual work remain their own.
It’s a level of data integrity that matches the seriousness of ASU’s approach: open to experimentation, grounded in responsibility.
A Blueprint for the Future of Higher Education
While many institutions are still debating how to handle AI, ASU is doing what it does best leading by doing. With this collaboration, the university isn’t just preparing students for a future shaped by AI. It’s actively shaping that future, right now.
“When AI goes to college,” it turns out, it doesn’t just help students write papers. It challenges entire institutions to reimagine how they educate, discover, and evolve.
And at ASU, that’s exactly the point.
