OpenAI Scholars 2020: Applications open
OpenAI
OpenAI just opened applications for its third Scholars cohort. It's a paid program to help people from underrepresented backgrounds break into machine learning.
Based on reporting by OpenAI — read the original for the full story.
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OpenAI dropped a short note this week: applications for its 2020 Scholars class are officially open. If you've been following the program since its 2018 debut, you know the drill by now — a few months of full-time, funded study in deep learning, aimed squarely at people who don't have the traditional pedigree that usually gets you in the door at a place like OpenAI.
The pitch has stayed consistent across two prior cohorts. Scholars get a stipend, compute access, and — probably the most valuable part — direct mentorship from OpenAI's own research staff. Instead of grinding through a PhD or hoping a big tech company takes a chance on a nontraditional resume, participants spend their time building a real project, often ending in something they can point to as a public portfolio piece. Past scholars have gone on to publish work and land research roles elsewhere in the field.
What's notable isn't the mechanics, which haven't changed much, but the timing. By 2020, the conversation around who gets to build AI, and who gets left out of it, had gotten louder. Machine learning conferences were publishing diversity numbers that were, frankly, embarrassing. Programs like this one are a small corrective, not a systemic fix, but they matter because access to compute and mentorship is still one of the biggest bottlenecks for anyone trying to break into the field without an elite university behind them.
OpenAI isn't alone in running something like this, but it has more institutional weight than most, given its research output and hiring pipeline. A scholar who does strong work here doesn't just get a stipend and a certificate — they get a foot in a door that's historically been narrow. That's the real value proposition, more than the program description lets on.
My take — AI-written commentary, not fact-checked reporting
I like these programs more than I trust them — a few months of mentorship won't undo decades of gatekeeping in ML, and it's fair to ask how much of this is genuine pipeline-building versus recruiting PR for a lab that still skews heavily toward Ivy League PhDs. Still, if it gets even a handful of people into rooms they'd otherwise never reach, that's a better use of OpenAI's compute budget than another benchmark flex.
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