ChatGPT’s Study Mode Is Here. It Won’t Fix Education’s AI Problems

OpenAI’s new study mode for ChatGPT throws questions back at students, but the learning feature doesn’t address generative AI’s underlying disruption of education.

The school year starts soon for many students, and ChatGPT has announced a new “study mode” that aims to prevent—or at least, encourage against—students taking homework shortcuts.

The mode is designed around the Socratic method, so when activated, OpenAI’s generative AI chatbot rejects direct requests for answers, instead guiding the user with open-ended questions. The new study mode is available to most logged-in users of ChatGPT, including those on the free version.

OpenAI has significantly disrupted the education system over the past few years, with students becoming some of the earliest adopters of ChatGPT. Even so, OpenAI claims the bot is currently an overall boon to learners—if asked to roleplay as a synthetic tutor.

“When ...