Digital
OpenAI partners with IIT, IIM, Aiims in AI education drive
From IIT to AIIMS, six institutions bring AI into everyday learning
NEW DELHI: OpenAI has teamed up with six of India’s leading higher education institutions to weave artificial intelligence into the fabric of campus life, aiming to build a generation of graduates ready for an AI-first economy.
The first cohort spans management, medicine, engineering, creative disciplines and multidisciplinary education. It includes the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, All India Institute of Medical Sciences New Delhi, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, University of Petroleum and Energy Studies and Pearl Academy.
The initiative is designed to go beyond basic access to AI tools. Instead, it focuses on helping students, faculty and staff use AI to deepen learning, sharpen critical thinking and accelerate research, all within responsible-use and academic-integrity frameworks.
OpenAI India head of education Raghav Gupta, said the shift is essential as workplaces evolve. He noted that nearly 40 per cent of core skills are expected to change by 2030, largely driven by AI. “Education institutions are a critical route to bridge the gap between what AI tools can do and how people are actually using them,” he said.
Over the coming year, the collaboration is expected to support more than 100,000 students, faculty members and staff. The programme will introduce campus-wide chatgpt edu access, structured onboarding, discipline-specific guidance and responsible-use policies tailored to each institution.
AI skills will be embedded into everyday academic workflows, from advanced prompting and coding to analytics, simulations, case studies and research support. The initiative will also bring hackathons, build days and research-to-deployment projects, culminating in industry days that connect campus innovations with startups and enterprises.
IIM Ahmedabad and Manipal Academy of Higher Education will also roll out OpenAI certifications, creating structured AI learning pathways in business and multidisciplinary programmes.
Beyond university campuses, OpenAI is collaborating with edtech platforms Physics Wallah, upGrad and HCL guvi to launch structured courses on AI fundamentals and practical ChatGPT use cases. The aim is to extend AI fluency to students and early-career professionals across the country.
Across the six institutions, the focus areas vary. IIT Delhi will concentrate on engineering research, prototyping and industry-linked innovation. IIM Ahmedabad will embed AI across management disciplines, from strategy and finance to entrepreneurship and public policy.
At Aiims New Delhi, the collaboration will explore AI-driven medical education, including simulation, clinical documentation and evidence synthesis, while setting safety and quality benchmarks. Manipal Academy will focus on cross-disciplinary research and large-scale AI literacy across programmes.
UPES plans to integrate AI across engineering, business, law, design and health sciences, positioning it as a core academic and operational tool. Pearl Academy will apply AI to creative workflows, from fashion and branding to digital media, giving students practical exposure to AI-driven design.
Taken together, the initiative signals a broader shift in Indian higher education from simply offering AI access to building institutions that think, teach and create with it at their core.
Digital
Ethical AI must benefit society, not dominate it, says WFEB chief Sanjay Pradhan at IAA event
At Mumbai event, ethics expert urges businesses and governments to shape AI responsibly
MUMBAI: Artificial intelligence may be racing ahead at lightning speed, but its direction must still be guided by human conscience. That was the central message delivered by Sanjay Pradhan, president of the World Forum for Ethics in Business (WFEB), during the latest edition of IAA Conversations held in Mumbai.
The session was organised by the International Advertising Association (IAA) and the Artificial Intelligence Association of India (AIAI) in association with The Free Press Journal at the Free Press House on 7 March. Addressing a packed audience, Pradhan called for stronger ethical leadership to ensure AI remains a tool that benefits humanity rather than one that governs it.
“Artificial intelligence has rapidly become one of the most powerful technologies humanity has created,” Pradhan said. “It is unlocking breakthroughs in medicine, science and creativity at a pace unimaginable just a few years ago.”
But he warned that the same technology carries serious risks. AI, he noted, can amplify disinformation faster than facts can travel, compromise privacy, deepen discrimination and disrupt millions of livelihoods. Referencing concerns raised by AI pioneers such as Geoffrey Hinton, often called the godfather of AI, Pradhan stressed that the real challenge is not whether AI will shape the world, but whether humans will shape it with ethics and wisdom.
Structuring his talk around four guiding questions, why, what, how and who, Pradhan introduced the audience to WFEB’s emerging AI Ethics Partnership, a global platform aimed at advancing responsible artificial intelligence. He outlined four priority concerns that demand urgent attention: disinformation, bias and discrimination, data privacy and job security.
To make the idea of ethical AI easier to grasp, Pradhan offered a simple metaphor. Ethical AI, he said, is like a three layered cake. The outer layer represents the visible value ethical AI creates for businesses and society. The middle layer is organisational culture that moves ethics from written codes to everyday practice. The innermost layer, however, is the most crucial, the conscience of individual leaders.
Drawing from Indian philosophical thought through WFEB co-founder Ravi Shankar, Pradhan noted that while artificial intelligence can reproduce stored knowledge, true intelligence is boundless and rooted in conscience, creativity and compassion. Practices such as breathwork and meditation, he suggested, can help leaders develop the calm clarity needed for ethical decision making.
The event also featured a discussion with Maninder Adityaraj Singh, chief of staff and head of innovation at Rediffusion Brand Solutions Pvt Ltd, and Yash Johri, lawyer, Supreme Court of India.
Opening the session, IAA India chapter president Abhishek Karnani, highlighted the need for industries to understand and engage with AI responsibly.
“AI has to be befriended and understood,” added Rediffusion managing director and AIAI national convenor Sandeep Goyal. “Its ethical use will determine whether it becomes a friend or a foe.”
As AI continues to reshape industries and societies, Pradhan ended with a simple but powerful call to action. Businesses, governments and individuals must work together to ensure that the algorithms shaping the future reflect human values rather than just cold logic.
