The OpenAI Forum hosted an engaging session titled "Harvard’s AI-Enhanced Classroom: Revolutionizing Learning with Custom GPTs", featuring Jake Cook from Harvard Business School and Siya Raj Purohit from OpenAI. Siya provided insights into AI-native universities, showcasing how ChatGPT transforms education at individual, team, and institutional levels. Jake presented real-world applications of AI in his classroom, emphasizing creative experimentation, personalized learning, and the power of play to unlock students' potential. The event highlighted innovative uses of AI, including custom GPTs for dynamic teaching and adaptive learning, fostering both efficiency and critical thinking. The discussion underscored AI's role in reshaping education and left participants with actionable insights and strategies for adoption.

The OpenAI Forum's first event of 2025 brought together Assistant Professor Iavor Bojinov from Harvard Business School (HBS) and Siya Raj Purohit from OpenAI's Education Team for a compelling discussion on the integration of artificial intelligence into education and business learning. Hosted by Natalie Cone, the forum highlighted groundbreaking efforts to establish AI-native universities and innovative strategies for incorporating AI into teaching and learning. Siya Raj Purohit introduced the audience to OpenAI for Education's initiatives, particularly the launch of ChatGPTEDU in 2024. This enterprise-grade platform offers secure and collaborative tools for educators, students, and institutions to deepen engagement with knowledge. ChatGPTEDU fosters network effects on campuses by enabling professors to create custom solutions for their classes and allowing students to engage with content in an interactive, conversational manner. Siya also shared OpenAI's broader vision for AI-native universities, where students experience AI touchpoints throughout their academic journey—from orientation to career services and beyond. These innovations are designed to empower students to achieve their goals with greater efficiency and creativity. Professor Iavor Bojinov shared the journey of integrating AI into the MBA curriculum at HBS. He detailed the development of the school's first AI-native course, "Data Science and AI for Leaders," which emphasizes foundational data science, AI, machine learning, and managerial decision-making. This course reflects a significant shift in business education, incorporating tools like ChatGPT, custom tutor bots, and advanced analytics bots to support interactive and practical learning. By redesigning the course as an AI-native experience, HBS has replaced traditional coding lessons with a focus on prompting, enabling students to engage deeply with data analysis while still addressing managerial challenges related to AI integration. During his presentation, Professor Bojinov highlighted key lessons learned from his pioneering efforts. Training, he emphasized, is essential for students and faculty to adopt AI tools effectively. He also noted the importance of aligning AI applications with the curriculum to prevent confusion and ensure meaningful learning outcomes. Exposing students to a variety of AI platforms prepares them for real-world scenarios where multiple tools are used in tandem, and understanding the strengths and limitations of these tools is vital for success. One of the standout features of the event was Professor Bojinov's hands-on teaching exercise, the "AI-First Snack Company." This activity enables students to explore AI's capabilities in market research, product development, and marketing strategies, providing an interactive way to learn prompting techniques and understand the creative potential of generative AI. The exercise also underscores AI's limitations, offering a balanced perspective on its applications in problem-solving and innovation. The session concluded with announcements of upcoming events, including a panel discussion with OpenAI’s new VP of Education, Leah Belsky, and other academic leaders, as well as a session featuring the integration of AI in research led by Dr. Rojansky from Stanford University. The OpenAI Forum continues to prioritize meaningful collaboration and invites members to engage actively through its global chapters and referral network. This event set the tone for 2025, providing valuable insights into the transformative potential of AI in education and fostering collaboration among academics and professionals. The discussions and initiatives presented underscored the pivotal role AI is poised to play in shaping the future of learning and professional development.

The recent OpenAI Forum event titled "How Wharton is Becoming an AI Native Institution" was a fascinating discussion led by Natalie Cohn, OpenAI Forum’s Community Architect, and featured experts like Dr. Richard Paul Waterman, a professor from Wharton, as well as his collaborators, MBA students Nupur Jain and Ceren Okar, and IT project lead Brandon Lafving. The event highlighted how Wharton has integrated AI into its educational framework, focusing on Dr. Waterman’s AI-based tools such as the "StatBot". These innovations aim to enhance the learning experience by automating tasks like summarizing lectures and improving faculty collaboration through data sharing. The team shared insights into the process of AI adoption, emphasizing that the demand for AI-powered tools is growing, with students driving the initial engagement. Throughout the event, participants also discussed broader trends in AI adoption within higher education, including how faculty and administrators can overcome challenges by integrating AI more seamlessly into the curriculum. Sia Raj Purohit, OpenAI’s education leader, further outlined a three-stage framework for AI transformation in universities, beginning with individual faculty adoption, moving toward department-level collaboration, and culminating in full organizational integration. Dr. Waterman and his collaborators demonstrated how Wharton is leading the way in AI-native education, both with student-focused AI tools and faculty-driven innovations, providing a glimpse into the future of higher education powered by AI.

The Data Science for Social Justice Workshop (DSSJ), organized in partnership between UC Berkeley’s Graduate Division and D-Lab, is an 8-week program aiming to provide an introduction to data science for graduate students, grounded in critical approaches of data feminism, data activism, ethics, and critical race theory. Attendees receive training in natural language processing and leverage their skills to conduct discourse analysis on social media data in an interdisciplinary project. This workshop, about to conclude its third year, has trained over 75 graduate students across 20 disciplines. These students form a community of interdisciplinary scholar-activists who uphold a values-driven approach to data science and machine learning. In this event, Claudia von Vacano, Ph.D., Executive Director of D-Lab, introduces the Data Science for Social Justice Workshop, highlighting its goals, structure, and outcomes. Then, three students who have participated in the workshop – with diverse and rich personal and academic backgrounds – present lightning talks on their experience with DSSJ, highlighting their personal journeys, the projects they worked on, and what they gained from the workshop. The event will conclude with a Q&A and discussion on how workshops like DSSJ present novel opportunities to train a generation of interdisciplinary, diverse data-driven scientists who center values and social justice at the forefront of their work.