New Policy Ideas for the Intelligence Age: Data Analysis Tools and Beyond
A new wave of policy ideas is emerging to address the challenges and opportunities presented by advanced artificial intelligence. OpenAI has announced a series of grants to support independent projects that aim to promote economic opportunity and societal resilience in the face of rapid AI advancements.
The 14 selected projects, led by organizations from around the world, will receive funding and API credits totaling $2 million. These initiatives span various themes, including the distribution of AI-driven productivity gains, access to AI ownership, and the development of new policy models for a rapidly changing economy.
According to OpenAI’s commitment outlined in their report ‘Industrial Policy for the Intelligence Age’ published in April 2026, these grants aim to support others in testing, challenging, and building on the ideas presented. The goal is to ensure that advanced AI benefits everyone, not just a select few.
The rapid advancement of AI capabilities has significant implications for how people learn, create, and participate in the economy. With ChatGPT reaching 1 billion users worldwide across various demographics, it’s clear that access to technology alone is only part of the equation. The choices societies make about deploying and distributing AI benefits will determine whether this technology serves the many or just a privileged few.
The policy response must be as ambitious as the technological change itself. This requires new approaches rather than adjustments to existing policies. In democratic societies, these decisions should be shaped through democratic institutions and public debate, with independent research and policy organizations playing an essential role in developing and testing new ideas.
Through these grants, researchers and practitioners will turn high-level concepts into concrete work, examining what could work, the potential costs, and how approaches can be implemented responsibly. Over 400 people and organizations responded to OpenAI’s call for proposals, with applicants identifying specific ideas that could meaningfully contribute to public understanding and policy development.
The selected projects span various countries, including the United States, European Union, Brazil, Singapore, and South Korea. They address two broad questions: how AI can broaden economic opportunity and how societies can build resilience as capabilities advance. Some will produce research and policy models, while others will develop prototypes, datasets, and frameworks that can be tested in practice.
For example, the American Enterprise Institute’s AEI-Urban Bipartisan Commission on Artificial Intelligence and the Future of the American Workforce aims to develop low-, moderate-, and high-disruption scenarios for AI’s effects on employment and skills. This will connect observable indicators of disruption to policy playbooks.
Another project, ‘Sharing the AI Dividend’ by Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS), examines how AI-driven productivity gains are distributed across workers, firms, sectors, regions, and countries in Europe. The goal is to develop innovative policy principles for a renewed European social investment model and adaptive safety nets to ensure that AI-driven prosperity is broadly shared.
The projects will run for six months, with results reported in 2027. OpenAI’s commitment to supporting independent institutions around the world as they test new ideas reflects their recognition of the need for diverse perspectives and expertise in addressing the challenges of the Intelligence Age.
In ‘Industrial Policy for the Intelligence Age’, OpenAI argued that governments should be prepared to use a full policy toolbox, from research funding and workforce development to market-shaping tools and targeted regulation. However, no company or government has all the answers. These grants aim to widen the circle of people developing policies by supporting independent institutions as they test new ideas, build evidence, and help democratic societies decide how AI can expand opportunity and strengthen resilience.
The results from these projects will inform a broader public debate about the policies required for the Intelligence Age. By engaging with diverse stakeholders and fostering collaboration between researchers, policymakers, and practitioners, OpenAI hopes to contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of the challenges and opportunities presented by advanced AI.