Artificial intelligence giant OpenAI on Monday announced a new initiative that aims to make it easier for servicemembers and veterans to use AI tools when they’re transitioning from military service to the workforce.
The ChatGPT-maker announced that servicemembers within 12 months of separation or retirement from, or any veteran within their first year of leaving military service, can access a free year of access to ChatGPT Plus, the company’s subscription-based tool.
Katrina Mulligan, head of national security partnerships at OpenAI for Government, told reporters that the initiative will give participants access to the company’s latest models and over 100 example chats written by OpenAI veterans based on real transition tasks. They can also access a “getting started” video made by an OpenAI veteran that’s tailored to servicemembers and veterans, as well as onboarding support through the OpenAI Academy.
“Our mission at OpenAI is to make sure that AI tools are broadly accessible and broadly useful, and that includes for the men and women who have served our country,” Mulligan said. “We know that nearly 70% of veterans say finding employment is the biggest challenge, and we want to make that transition a little bit easier by providing support that’s available anytime — whether it’s writing a resume, practicing interview questions or planning next steps.”
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Retired Gen. Paul Nakasone, an OpenAI board member, said after having experienced the transition out of service 15 months ago that it presents an opportunity to learn new ways to talk, dress and translate military skills to the workforce for the 200,000 servicemembers who transition to the private sector each year.
He noted the examples of the GI Bill, which started during World War II, and veteran-oriented technology that has emerged this century from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq as ways the nation has supported veterans, adding that OpenAI sees this initiative as a new form of that assistance.
“OpenAI believes very, very firmly that this type of assistance needs to continue. In a world today where artificial intelligence really is the driving factor of how we do our economies, it’s so important that our veterans have this ability to leverage the ideas and the insights that our platform can provide,” Nakasone said.
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Army veteran and OpenAI robotics recruiting lead Vikki Lampton said that using OpenAI has made her reflect on her transition out of the Army in 2013 and consider how different it would’ve been if she had access to the AI tool at the time.
“As I started mentoring other veterans that were transitioning, I would show them how to use ChatGPT to translate their military experience into civilian terms and understand their benefits, demystify their paperwork, prepare for interviews or even explore starting their own businesses,” Lampton said. “What stood out was how quickly they picked it up and how much more confident they felt once they had something that helped them navigate the transition on their own terms.”
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Troy Peterson, technical program manager at OpenAI and Army veteran, added that the OpenAI team “designed these resources around the real challenges that we faced and other veterans faced, and we’re proud to be able to share this with the wider community.”
Peterson said that transitioning from the military to the civilian workforce can be daunting because, “Veterans have skills and experience, but not always the tools to explain them or plan these next steps.”
“The program really grew out of our experiences volunteering with transitioning veterans and seeing ChatGPT act as a force multiplier. Time and again, vets have said to us, ‘I had no idea I could use it for that,'” Peterson said.
He added that he used ChatGPT when he was interviewing at OpenAI and the tool has gotten more capable in recent years, saying that the company is “really proud of how veterans and supporters across the company have come together to turn this idea into reality.”
Katherine Webster, Vets in Tech founder and CEO, noted that veterans are well-positioned to work across teams in multicultural environments and added that “AI is becoming a foundational tool across every industry, especially defense tech which [veterans] are a perfect fit for.”
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