The University of Oxford has given OpenAI access to its Bodleian Library\u2019s historical texts that the ChatGPT maker can use to train its AI models. According to internal documents as reported by The Guardian, \u201cThe Bodleian material digitised by OpenAI has been used to populate the OpenAI training set,\u201d so the AI could learn language patterns. The revelation is a part of partnership that the university announced with the tech company in March 2025, allowing OpenAI software to digitise texts from the library aimed at facilitating the students and researchers. But the announcement did not explicitly mention that the digitised material would specifically be used for OpenAI\u2019s models training. These systems process massive amounts of information to recognize linguistic patterns, enabling them to construct complete sentences and execute cognitive functions. However, Oxford has disputed claims that it hid the model-training part of the deal from staff and public. The Oxford spokesperson said, \u201cThe material digitised through the project with OpenAI is modest in scale, out of copyright, and OpenAI\u2019s use of the material is not exclusive. The Bodleian\u2019s collections remain fully intact, unlike standard practice in some second-hand book acquisitions. News Agency<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Bodleian libraries also retain the rights to make the digitised material available themselves, and the library will begin to publish these materials openly online in the next few months, as we do with outputs from other digitisation partnerships.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to an OpenAI spokesperson, by using the ancient texts for training, modern AI models can preserve historical knowledge while reflecting diverse cultures and histories across the world.
\n\u201cWith more than a billion people using this technology in everyday life, it\u2019s important it reflects different cultures, histories and perspectives,\u201d they added.
\nBut this disclosure raised concerns among the staff including members of the Bodleian governance committee over the reputational risk after collaborating with OpenAI.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The University of Oxford has given OpenAI access to its Bodleian Library\u2019s historical texts that the ChatGPT maker can use to train its AI models. According to internal documents as reported by The Guardian, \u201cThe Bodleian material digitised by OpenAI has been used to populate the OpenAI training set,\u201d so the AI could learn language […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-569271","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-business"],"yoast_head":"\n