The University of Oxford has signed a five-year agreement with OpenAI to provide access to historical materials from the Bodleian Libraries for AI model training. The partnership was officially announced on March 4, 2025.
The collaboration includes a pilot project launched in February 2025 to digitize approximately 3,500 public-domain dissertations written between 1498 and 1884. This initiative is part of OpenAI’s NextGenAI program, which allocates $50 million for research grants and computing resources.
Oxford will implement ChatGPT Edu across the university starting in September 2025, following a pilot phase involving 750 users. The institution expects to publish research findings from the digitization project in open-access reports by early 2026.
While the university gains access to digitization support and educational tools, some staff members have expressed concerns regarding potential reputational risks associated with the partnership. The deal follows similar agreements between OpenAI and other institutions, including Harvard and MIT.
