How countries can end the capability overhang
OpenAI News人工智能（ AI ）正以惊人的速度发展，但许多国家尚未充分利用其潜力来造福民众并推动经济增长。存在一种能力差距（ capability overhang ）——在那些已经善用这些工具的国家与其他国家之间拉开了距离。如果这种差距继续扩大，少数国家将在经济与技术上进一步领先，其他国家则可能陷入难以扭转的落后局面。
我们今天发布的研究报告《 Ending the Capability Gap 》显示，这种差距已经相当显著。典型的高级用户在使用 AI 时依赖大约七倍于普通用户的高级“思维能力”，他们更多地用 AI 完成复杂的、多步骤的工作，而不仅仅是简单的提示。
我们还发现明显的国家层面差距，而这并非仅由收入水平决定。在使用 ChatGPT 最多的 70 多个国家中，有些国家的人均“思维能力”使用量比其他国家高出 3 倍。像美国和印度这样的经济大国在用户总量上领先，而新加坡、荷兰等小型高收入国家在人口普及率上更突出，但高级 AI 的采用并不只集中在富裕国家。越南和巴基斯坦等国在使用具有能动性的工具（ agentic tools ）方面名列世界前茅，人均在数据分析、 Connectors 和 Codex 等高级任务上的使用量超过了 2 倍。
简单来说，这意味着部分国家已经在用 AI 解决更难的问题、加快发展步伐，而这与其资源多少并不完全相关。这些差异已经转化为实际的生产力提升，让人们有更多时间从事更高难度的工作、开发新产品和服务、加速创新，从而推动经济增长并改善生活水平。
这也是我们去年启动 “ OpenAI for Countries ” 计划的原因：帮助各国政府和机构将 AI 及其成果惠及更多人。该倡议支持国家从基础使用向更深层次采用过渡——包括将 AI 融入教育体系、工作场所和公共服务，以提高生产力、强化机构能力并扩大机会。与其采用一刀切的做法， OpenAI for Countries 强调与当地需求、优先事项和承载能力相契合的伙伴关系。
今天在与 World Economic Forum 同期举行的 OpenAI 活动上，我们宣布将在 2026 年扩大这一工作，推出以教育、健康、 AI 技能培训与认证、灾害响应与准备、网络安全以及创业加速器为重点的新举措，为各国提供多种与我们合作、应对自身需求和优先事项的选择路径。
这次扩展的一个核心，是帮助合作国家为以 AI 为驱动的未来做好准备，起点是 OpenAI 的 “ Education for Countries ” 项目。该项目旨在帮助政府将 AI 引入教育体系，以强化学习成效并让学生为未来就业做好准备——同时与政府携手改进我们的模型与教育工具。展望未来，我们也期待探索与 OpenAI for Countries 合作国的创意与文化部门开展合作的可能性。
随着更多工作场所采用 AI、更多雇主寻求具备 AI 技能的员工，各国政府越来越把这项技术当作关键的教育基础设施来看待。这意味着要在帮助学习者建立 AI 能力的同时，向教育工作者提供新工具与培训，引导学生以促进学习与批判性思维的方式使用这些工具。首批 Education for Countries 的合作伙伴包括爱沙尼亚、阿联酋、希腊、约旦、斯洛伐克、哈萨克斯坦、特立尼达和多巴哥，以及意大利的 CRUI。该项目将与各国教育部、大学和研究人员合作，整合更广泛的先进 AI 工具访问、大规模的 AI 对教育与学习影响研究、面向学生与教育者的培训与认证，以及逐步壮大的全球合作网络，共同推动在教育中负责任地使用 AI 的做法。
与 Education for Countries 相同，我们的其他新举措也将保持灵活，并通过与合作伙伴的持续对话来共同塑造，重点是如何把 AI 能力转化为现实世界的影响。各国通过改进采用路径——扩大企业应用规模、建设 AI 就绪的基础设施、提升劳动力与课堂的 AI 流畅度——有重大机会捕捉到生产力收益。随着 AI 能力持续进步，现在采取行动可以让各国把这些进展转化为惠及更广泛人群的切实利益。
欲了解有关 OpenAI for Countries 扩展的更多内容，请参阅《 Ending the Capability Gap 》报告。
AI is advancing at extraordinary speed, but many countries are not yet leveraging its full potential to benefit people and drive economic growth. There is a capability overhang between those who are taking advantage of these tools and everybody else. If that overhang continues to grow, a small number of countries will pull further ahead economically and technologically, while others risk falling behind in ways that will be difficult to reverse.
New research we’re releasing today in our report, Ending the Capability Gap, shows how large this overhang has already become. The typical power user relies on about seven times more advanced “thinking capabilities” than the typical user—using AI for more complex, multi-step work rather than simple prompts.
We also observe a clear country-level gap, and it isn’t driven by income alone. Across more than 70 countries with the highest ChatGPT usage, some countries use 3× more thinking capabilities per person than others. While large economies like the United States and India lead in total users—and smaller high-income countries like Singapore and the Netherlands stand out in population penetration—advanced AI adoption is not confined to wealthy nations. Countries such as Vietnam and Pakistan rank among the world’s top users of agentic tools, with more than 2× higher per-person use of advanced tasks like data analysis, Connectors, and Codex.
Put plainly, this means some countries are already using AI to solve harder problems and move faster, regardless of how many resources they have. These differences already translate into real productivity gains, freeing people to take on harder tasks, build new products and services, and accelerate innovation in ways that drive economic growth and improve living standards.
That’s why we launched OpenAI for Countries last year: to help governments and institutions put AI and its gains into the hands of more people. The initiative supports countries as they move from basic use to deeper adoption—including integrating AI into education systems, workplaces, and public services in ways that raise productivity, strengthen institutions, and expand opportunity. Rather than a one-size-fits-all approach, OpenAI for Countries is built around partnerships that reflect local needs, priorities, and capacity.
Today at our OpenAI event alongside the World Economic Forum, we announced that we’re expanding this work in 2026 with new initiatives focused on education, health, AI skills training and certifications, disaster response and preparedness, cybersecurity, and start-up accelerators. They give nations a range of options for how to work with us to address their needs and priorities.
A key focus of this expansion is helping partner nations prepare for an AI-driven world, starting with OpenAI’s Education for Countries program. It’s designed to help governments bring AI into their education systems in ways that strengthen learning and prepare students for the jobs of the future—and to work hand-in-hand with governments to improve our models and education tools. Looking forward, I’m also excited about the prospect of finding ways to work with the creative and cultural sectors of OpenAI for Countries partners.
With more workplaces adopting AI and more employers seeking workers with AI skills, governments are increasingly treating the technology as essential education infrastructure. That means helping learners build AI skills while equipping educators with new tools and training to guide students to use the tools in ways that advance learning and critical thinking. The first set of Edu for Countries partners includes Estonia, the United Arab Emirates, Greece, Jordan, Slovakia, Kazakhstan, Trinidad & Tobago, and Italy’s CRUI. Working with ministries, universities, and researchers across these systems, the program will combine expanded access to advanced AI tools, large-scale research into AI’s impact on education and learning, training and certifications for both students and educators, and a growing global community of partners working to shape responsible approaches to using AI in education.
Like Education for Countries, the rest of our new initiatives are designed to be flexible and shaped through ongoing discussions with our partners about how to translate AI capability into real-world impact. Countries have a significant opportunity to capture productivity gains by improving adoption—scaling enterprise use, building AI-ready infrastructure, and increasing AI fluency across workforces and classrooms. And as AI capabilities continue to advance, acting now gives countries the opportunity to turn that progress into concrete benefits for people everywhere.
Read more about our OpenAI for Countries expansion in the Ending the Capability Gap report here.
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