Court drama may be dominating the OpenAI news cycle, but the artificial intelligence startup and its accelerator program are keeping things going. OpenAI today announced the launch of Converge-2, the second cohort of its six-week Converge program for "exceptional engineers, designers, researchers, and product builders who are reimagining the world using artificial intelligence."
Like members of OpenAI's first Converge, the 10-15 startups selected to participate in Converge-2 will receive an equity investment of US$1 million from the OpenAI Startup Fund. This means that the Converge-2 program provides an investment of at least US$10 million, which is not a small amount of money.
In addition to funding, Converge-2 participants will have access to technical talks, office hours, networking events and conversations with "leading practitioners" and OpenAI's "builder community," the blog post said. Importantly, they won't be forced to build on top of OpenAI's API; OpenAI emphasizes that the program is "open to anyone building or interested in building artificial intelligence," though we can assume that network effects will make OpenAI's technology extremely attractive.
OpenAI encourages applications from founders of all backgrounds, disciplines, and experience levels, including those outside the United States. But OpenAI will require selected startups to devote at least 4 to 6 hours per week from March 11 to April 19, and the first and last weeks of the project will be conducted in San Francisco (OpenAI will cover travel expenses).
You can apply to visit the official website, the deadline is January 26th:
https://openai.fund/