University of Oxford allows OpenAI to train AI models on Bodleian library data

One of the world’s oldest universities just handed one of the world’s newest tech giants the keys to its library. The University of Oxford has entered a five-year partnership with OpenAI, allowing the company behind ChatGPT to train its AI models on historical texts housed in the legendary Bodleian Libraries. The collaboration, announced on March 4, 2025, kicked off with a pilot project in February targeting the digitization of roughly 3,500 public-domain dissertations dating from 1498 to 1884. These are texts that have sat on shelves for centuries, largely inaccessible to anyone who couldn’t physically visit Oxford. What the deal actually involves The partnership falls under OpenAI’s NextGenAI program, which has committed $50 million in research grants, computing resources, and API access to a handful of elite institutions. Oxford joins Harvard and MIT in that cohort. For the Bodleian Libraries, the pitch is straightforward: AI-powered metadata enrichment and improved transcription services will make centuries-old collections searchable and globally accessible. On the education side, Oxford plans to roll out ChatGPT Edu across the university starting in September 2025. The tool ha...