OpenAI launches ChatGPT study mode to reduce AI misuse at schools and universities

OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT, today announced the launch of “study mode,” in an effort to cut down on students using the chatbot to effectively remove them from many of the processes required to educate themselves.

OpenAI says the feature “helps you work through problems step by step instead of just getting an answer.” Accessible through the tools button on ChatGPT Free, Plus, Pro, as well as Team users and ChatGPT Edu users, once turned on, the bot becomes an interactive partner rather than a collaborator in cheating.

Students using chatbots to complete assignments or write essays has become a major concern since the rise of generative artificial intelligence chatbots. Not just because it’s unethical, but because the very process of learning is how young adults or children enhance their intelligence.

A recent study from researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology showed how students relying on ChatGPT to write essays reduced cognitive engagement, with scans showing the regions of the brain associated with attention, memory, and higher-order reasoning were less active. Moreover, the students in the study who did use the AI handed in essays the researchers called “soulless.”

“Just as relying on a GPS dulls our sense of direction, relying on AI to write and reason can dull our ability to do those very things ourselves,” noted the report. “That’s a debt that compounds over time.”

It seems that if students choose almost total abdication over augmentation, if they allow the bot to do the heavy lifting and barely engage with it, it could be problematic for them in the future. OpenAI’s new study mode hopes to alleviate some of the problems by testing the student with what it said are “Socratic questioning and self-reflection prompts.” The company says it has worked with teachers, scientists, and pedagogy experts to create a feature that will “help students learn something, not just finish something.”

It doesn’t, of course, mean students vying for a good grade at little cognitive cost won’t just bypass study mode and embrace can’t-be-bothered-thinking mode – it’s not like a teenager to do that. But it is a step in the right direction lest the next generation spend their formative years actively dulling their intelligence rather than flexing their cogitative prowess.

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