ChatGPT drops the all-new study mode; will it finally make AI student-friendly? Here's all you need to know

Much before the awaited ChatGPT 5, parent OpenAI has launched a Study Mode to give students “step by step guidance instead of quick answers.”

The launch comes amid popular backlash that ChatGPT had been facing due to its models accruing straight answers to students without making them actually learn, becoming a go-to place for cheating.

What is ChatGPT study mode?

ChatGPT claims that this mode will ensure that the platform is “used to support real learning, and doesn’t just offer solutions without helping students make sense of them?”

“When students engage with study mode, they’re met with guiding questions that calibrate responses to their objective and skill level to help them build deeper understanding,” the blogpost said.

The mode has been built particularly for college students.

How does it work?

The mode has certain custom system instructions, written by teachers, scientists, and pedagogy experts, to encourage participation and “managing cognitive load, developing metacognition and self-reflection, fostering curiosity, and providing actionable and supportive feedback.”

The mode uses the Socratic method for questioning that defers handing down answers, instead organises in sections with personalisation and quizzes along the way.

However, the caveat lies in the toggle nature of the mode. Users can simply turn the mode on and off making one question whether truly this would be useful given whether any student will indeed ever turn it on.

Users will have to choose the “Study and learn” option from tools in ChatGPT to enable the mode.

Who can use it?

Launched on Tuesday, the mode is available to all user tiers including Free, Plus, Pro, Team, as availability in ChatGPT Edu is expected to come in the next few weeks.

What lies next?

While this is a small step in the right direction, this is by giving a bad use case and making it common and then introducing corrective measures from the top.

Additionally, for adolescents, what might have worked better is to have gone the Meta For Teens route where users inherently enter the study mode based on their ages.

Nevertheless, for now OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and his ‘vulnerable to Meta poaching’ team is focussed on making this mode more visually appealing and engaging.

“OpenAI is enabling further research on learning and AI through various partners in its NextGenAI⁠ initiative, and working with experts from the SCALE Initiative at Stanford University’s Accelerator for Learning⁠(opens in a new window) to study and share how AI tools influence learning outcomes in areas like K-12 education,” the company added.