OpenAI Launches ChatGPT Study Mode: A New Approach to AI-Assisted Learning

ChatGPT's new Study Mode is designed to help you learn, not just give answers

The rise of large language models like ChatGPT has led to widespread concern that "everyone is cheating their way through college," as a recent New York magazine article memorably put it. Now, OpenAI is rolling out a new "Study Mode" that it says is less about providing answers or doing the work for students and more about helping them "build [a] deep understanding" of complex topics. Study Mode isn't a new ChatGPT model, but a series of "custom system instructions" written for the LLM "in collaboration with teachers, scientists, and pedagogy experts to reflect a core set of behaviors that support deeper learning," OpenAI said. Instead of the usual summary of a subject that stock ChatGPT might give -- which one OpenAI employee likened to "almost like a mini textbook chapter" -- Study Mode slowly rolls out new information in a "scaffolded" structure. The mode is designed to ask "guiding questions" in the Socratic style and to pause for periodic "knowledge checks" and personalized feedback to make sure the user understands before moving on. In an early hands-off demo attended by Ars Technica, Study Mode responded to a request to "teach me about game theory" by first asking about the user's overall familiarity with the subject and what they'll be using the information for. ChatGPT then introduced a short overview of some core game theory concepts, then paused to ask a question before providing a relevant real-world example. In another example involving a classic "train traveling at speed" math problem, Study Mode resisted multiple simulated attempts by the frustrated "student" to simply ask for the answer and instead tried to gently redirect the conversation to how the available information could be used to generate that answer. An OpenAI representative told Ars that Study Mode will eventually provide direct solutions if asked repeatedly, but the default behavior is more tuned to a Socratic tutoring style. A 24/7 tutorbot In building Study Mode, OpenAI said it was inspired by "power users" who were already trying to adapt ChatGPT into a personal tutor or test prep tool via specific sets of prompts. Through Study Mode, OpenAI says it hopes to give less technically minded users the ability to access "a personal tutor that never gets tired of their questions." OpenAI says it worked with pedagogy experts who evaluated the mode's behaviors and gave the model "golden examples" of how ideal tutors would respond in certain situations. It also consulted with groups of college students who were given advance access to the new feature. In a press conference attended by Ars, some of those students waxed rhapsodical about Study Mode's ability to push them toward the next important bit of knowledge and the confidence they gained in their ability to learn when using the tool. One student talked about the vulnerability and embarrassment of having to go to a TA's office hours for help and the flexibility of having multi-hour tutoring sessions available via ChatGPT at any time of the day. Can you trust it? People who are familiar with LLMs' long-standing tendency to confabulate completely false information might be reluctant to use these kinds of models as a study aid. In a press release, OpenAI allowed that the current Study Mode prompt "results in some inconsistent behavior and mistakes across conversations." That said, a company spokesperson told Ars that the risk of hallucination was lower with Study Mode because the model goes through information in smaller chunks, calibrating along the way. While Study Mode wasn't designed explicitly to address concerns about ChatGPT being used to cheat on assignments, a spokesperson told Ars that it could help allay educators' fears that students are simply using LLMs to get out of doing their own work. Study Mode will be added to its ChatGPT Edu product "in a few weeks" for subscribing schools that want to offer a different kind of AI experience to students. For now, though, OpenAI says the specialized Study Mode system prompts are a "first step" to training similar behaviors "directly into our main models" in the future.

OpenAI launches Study Mode in ChatGPT | TechCrunch

OpenAI announced Tuesday the launch of Study Mode, a new feature within ChatGPT that aims to help students develop their own critical thinking skills, rather than simply obtain answers to questions. With Study Mode enabled, ChatGPT will ask users questions to test their understanding, and in some cases, refuse to offer direct answers unless students engage with the material. OpenAI says Study Mode is rolling out to logged in users on ChatGPT's Free, Plus, Pro, and Team plans starting Tuesday. The company expects to roll Study Mode out to its Edu subscribers -- which largely consists of young people whose school administrator's have purchased a plan for the entire student body -- in the coming weeks. Study Mode is OpenAI's attempt to address the millions of students that use ChatGPT in school. Studies have shown that using ChatGPT can be a helpful tutor for young people, but it also may harm their critical thinking skills. A research paper released in June found that people who use ChatGPT to write essays exhibit lower brain activity during the process compared to those who use Google Search or nothing at all. When ChatGPT first launched in 2022, its widespread use in school settings sparked fear among educators, leading to generative AI bans in many American school districts. By 2023, some of those schools repealed their ChatGPT bans, and teachers around the country came to terms with the fact that ChatGPT would be a part of young people's lives from now on. Now with the launch of Study Mode, OpenAI hopes to improve ChatGPT as a learning tool, and not just an answer engine. Anthropic launched a similar tool for its AI chatbot Claude, called Learning Mode, in April. Of course, there are limitations to how effective Study Mode truly is. Students can easily switch into the regular mode of ChatGPT if they just want an answer to a question. OpenAI's VP of Education, Leah Belsky, told TechCrunch in a briefing that the company is not offering tools for parents or administrators to lock students into Study Mode. However, Belsky said OpenAI may explore administrative or parental controls in the future. That means it will take a committed student to use Study Mode -- the kids have to really want to learn, not just finish their assignment. OpenAI says Study Mode is the company's first step to improving learning in ChatGPT, and aims to publish more information in the future about how students use generative AI throughout their education.

OpenAI is launching a version of ChatGPT for college students

A demonstration for reporters from OpenAI showed what happens when a student asks Study Mode about an academic subject like game theory. The chatbot begins by asking what the student wants to know and then attempts to build an exchange, where the pair work methodically toward the answer together. OpenAI says the tool was built after consulting with pedagogy experts from over 40 institutions. A handful of college students who were part of OpenAI's testing cohort -- hailing from Princeton, Wharton, and the University of Minnesota -- shared positive reviews of Study Mode, saying it did a good job of checking their understanding and adapting to their pace. The learning approaches that OpenAI has programmed into Study Mode, which are based partially on Socratic methods, appear sound, says Christopher Harris, an educator in New York who has created a curriculum aimed at AI literacy. They might grant educators more confidence about allowing, or even encouraging, their students to use AI. "Professors will see this as working with them in support of learning as opposed to just being a way for students to cheat on assignments," he says. But there's a more ambitious vision behind Study Mode. As demonstrated in OpenAI's recent partnership with leading teachers' unions, the company is currently trying to rebrand chatbots as tools for personalized learning rather than cheating. Part of this promise is that AI will act like the expensive human tutors that currently only the most well-off students' families can typically afford. "We can begin to close the gap between those with access to learning resources and high-quality education and those who have been historically left behind," says OpenAI's head of education. Leah Belsky. But painting Study Mode as an education equalizer obfuscates one glaring problem. Underneath the hood, it is not a tool trained exclusively on academic textbooks and other approved materials -- it's more like the same old ChatGPT, tuned with a new conversation filter that simply governs how it responds to students, encouraging fewer answers and more explanations. This AI tutor, therefore, more resembles what you'd get if you hired a human tutor who has read every required textbook, but also every flawed explanation of the subject ever posted to Reddit, Tumblr, and the farthest reaches of the web. And because of the way AI works, you can't expect it to distinguish right information from wrong. Professors encouraging their students to use it run the risk of it teaching them to approach problems in the wrong way -- or worse, being taught material that is fabricated or entirely false.

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 ChatGPT is prompted to teach or tutor, it can significantly improve academic performance," says Leah Belsky, a vice president of education at OpenAI, "but when it's just used as an answer machine, it can hinder learning." The problem is, no matter how engaging ChatGPT's study mode becomes as OpenAI iterates on this feature, it exists just a toggle click away from ChatGPT, with direct answers (and potential fabrications) about whatever class you're working on. That could be quite hard to resist for younger users still developing their frontal lobe. It's true that students on the hunt for easy ways to avoid engaging with the substance of a course have always had resources available to them, like the CliffNotes series of literature summaries. Still, the immediacy and personalized nature of chatbots feels like an escalation. Multiple AI-focused smartphone apps that can solve homework problems with just a snapshot, like ByteDance's Gauth, rocket in popularity whenever the school year gets back into session. Many educators have recently raised concerns about the continued, and often secretive, use of AI by students. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman doesn't buy it. "I remember when I was in school -- junior high -- Google first came out and all the teachers freaked out," Altman said on a recent podcast. Similar to the internet and the calculator, Altman's sees AI as a tool capable of helping you "think better."

ChatGPT Study Mode Aims to Circumvent the Brain Atrophy Problem With AI in Education

Imad is a senior reporter covering Google and internet culture. Hailing from Texas, Imad started his journalism career in 2013 and has amassed bylines with The New York Times, The Washington Post, ESPN, Tom's Guide and Wired, among others. ChatGPT Study Mode is a new function within the artificial intelligence chatbot that aims to give students a more natural learning experience rather than simply answering questions for them, the company announced Tuesday. Whereas typing in a question or topic into ChatGPT returns a textbook-style summary, Study Mode works with students, step by step, to help them come to the correct answer on their own. Students can chat with ChatGPT to gain better clarification on things they don't understand, as though they were working with a tutor. Study Mode will be available for free for Plus, Pro and Team users and will launch for ChatGPT Edu in the next few weeks. Study Mode won't simply respond like an answer engine. Even if a student gets frustrated and wants ChatGPT to just spit out the correct answer, it'll refuse. Instead, it'll try to continue working with students to help them get to the correct conclusion. For faculty and parents, there aren't admin controls at the moment, meaning students can switch back to standard ChatGPT if they really want that straight answer. OpenAI, however, is looking to increase admin controls in the future. With the release of ChatGPT in late 2023, the academic world was hit almost immediately. Suddenly, students had a word calculator trained on massive amounts of data, with the ability to spit out essays in seconds. The temptation to get immediate answers from ChatGPT has proven to be tempting for students and has made AI plagiarism a problem in classrooms and on college campuses. Teachers are complaining that students are deferring the hard work of thinking and problem-solving to AI. Teachers are also complaining that AI is hindering students' abilities to think critically. Experts say that critical thinking is highly important for childhood development. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said on the Theo Von Podcast last week that with the advancement of AI models, education will need to change entirely. Because AI models will one day become smarter than humans in processing information, teaching needs to evolve with this new tool being widely used in society. (Disclosure: Ziff Davis, CNET's parent company, in April filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.)

ChatGPT's new study mode aims to teach students, not do the work for them - and it's free

It's available to logged-in ChatGPT Free, Plus, Pro, and Team users. Since generative AI tools such as ChatGPT launched, a debate has emerged: Will they impede students' education by doing their work for them? OpenAI's latest ChatGPT feature seeks to tackle that issue head-on. OpenAI unveiled study mode in ChatGPT, Tuesday. It's a learning experience that helps students work toward the solution to a problem instead of just receiving the response. The feature encourages learning through step-by-step guiding questions meant to both engage students and promote deeper understanding. Also: Anthropic launches Claude for Education, an AI to help students think critically (Disclosure: Ziff Davis, ZDNET's parent company, filed an April 2025 lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.) "We built [study mode] based on research and learning science, and conversation with pedagogy experts around the world," said Leah Belsky, VP and GM of education at OpenAI, to the press. "We collaborated with them to gather examples of how a teacher or a tutor would ideally respond to drive learning, engagement, and curiosity." In a demo of the feature, Abhi Muchhal, who works in product at OpenAI, prompted both the regular version of ChatGPT and the study mode version with "ChatGPT, teach me about game theory." The regular version provided a long, comprehensive response detailing what it is. While useful, this resembles a Wikipedia page or report that may still be difficult to digest. Meanwhile, in study mode, instead of automatically generating the response, ChatGPT engages the students by asking questions such as what their learning level is and what they already know about the topic to best tailor the conversation. Beyond the interactive prompts that mimic Socratic questioning, other key features include knowledge checks with quizzes, open-ended questions, and even personalized feedback; personalized lessons based on previous questions that assess skill level; and responses organized with easy-to-follow sections. You can access study mode in ChatGPT Free, Plus, Pro, and Team as long as you are logged in. ChatGPT Edu will be available in the next few weeks. To try it, all you have to do is select "study and learn" from the tools in ChatGPT. OpenAI cautioned that study mode is a first step in improving how students learn using ChatGPT. The approach used right now, custom system instructions, allows OpenAI to collect feedback quickly, but also results in "some inconsistent behavior and mistakes across conversations." OpenAI said that once it has collected student feedback, it plans to train the behavior directly into its main models. GoogleAlso: Can AI save teachers from a crushing workload? There's new evidence it might In the future, OpenAI also plans to build on study mode with clear visualizations, goal setting, tracking, and deeper personalization. To enable further research on AI in education, OpenAI is working with partners and academic institutions and plans on releasing longer-term studies and deeper analysis on the topic. OpenAI isn't the only AI company getting into the education space. Companies such as Google and Anthropic also have offerings tailored toward students, and many of the AI research companies, including Nvidia, have partnerships with universities across the country to help students and educators prepare for an AI-first future. Get the morning's top stories in your inbox each day with our Tech Today newsletter.

ChatGPT's study mode could be your next tutor - and it's free

It's available to logged-in ChatGPT Free, Plus, Pro, and Team users. Since generative AI tools such as ChatGPT launched, a debate has emerged: Will they impede students' education by doing their work for them? OpenAI's latest ChatGPT feature seeks to tackle that issue head-on. OpenAI unveiled study mode in ChatGPT, Tuesday. It's a learning experience that helps students work toward the solution to a problem instead of just receiving the response. The feature encourages learning through step-by-step guiding questions meant to both engage students and promote deeper understanding. Also: Anthropic launches Claude for Education, an AI to help students think critically (Disclosure: Ziff Davis, ZDNET's parent company, filed an April 2025 lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.) "We built [study mode] based on research and learning science, and conversation with pedagogy experts around the world," said Leah Belsky, VP and GM of education at OpenAI, to the press. "We collaborated with them to gather examples of how a teacher or a tutor would ideally respond to drive learning, engagement, and curiosity." In a demo of the feature, Abhi Muchhal, who works in product at OpenAI, prompted both the regular version of ChatGPT and the study mode version with "ChatGPT, teach me about game theory." The regular version provided a long, comprehensive response detailing what it is. While useful, this resembles a Wikipedia page or report that may still be difficult to digest. Meanwhile, in study mode, instead of automatically generating the response, ChatGPT engages the students by asking questions such as what their learning level is and what they already know about the topic to best tailor the conversation. Beyond the interactive prompts that mimic Socratic questioning, other key features include knowledge checks with quizzes, open-ended questions, and even personalized feedback; personalized lessons based on previous questions that assess skill level; and responses organized with easy-to-follow sections. You can access study mode in ChatGPT Free, Plus, Pro, and Team as long as you are logged in. ChatGPT Edu will be available in the next few weeks. To try it, all you have to do is select "study and learn" from the tools in ChatGPT. OpenAI cautioned that study mode is a first step in improving how students learn using ChatGPT. The approach used right now, custom system instructions, allows OpenAI to collect feedback quickly, but also results in "some inconsistent behavior and mistakes across conversations." OpenAI said that once it has collected student feedback, it plans to train the behavior directly into its main models. GoogleAlso: Can AI save teachers from a crushing workload? There's new evidence it might In the future, OpenAI also plans to build on study mode with clear visualizations, goal setting, tracking, and deeper personalization. To enable further research on AI in education, OpenAI is working with partners and academic institutions and plans on releasing longer-term studies and deeper analysis on the topic. OpenAI isn't the only AI company getting into the education space. Companies such as Google and Anthropic also have offerings tailored toward students, and many of the AI research companies, including Nvidia, have partnerships with universities across the country to help students and educators prepare for an AI-first future. Get the morning's top stories in your inbox each day with our Tech Today newsletter.

ChatGPT Adds Study Mode Focused on 'Real Learning' Instead of Direct Answers

The mode, free for all almost all logged-in users, provides hints and self-reflection prompts to encourage students to get to the solution themselves. OpenAI has introduced a new Study Mode for ChatGPT that transforms the bot into a tutor. When enabled, it explains each step of the solution rather than jumping directly to the final answer. It's no secret that more students are now using AI chatbots to get through homework and projects. While the bots are fast and convenient, they pose a major threat to the learning experience. ChatGPT's new Study Mode aims to address those concerns and support "real learning," according to OpenAI. It uses Socratic questioning, hints, and self-reflection prompts to understand a student's objective and skill level, and then calibrates an appropriate response. To get started, select "Study and learn" from Tools, and put your into the search query. We tested the new tool for a school-level math problem and were treated to a tutor-like, back-and-forth discussion. It guided us through the order of operations and let us do the basic calculations. Each correct response took us to the next part of the solution, while each incorrect response came with an explanation and hints to get it right. "Instead of doing the work for them, study mode encourages students to think critically about their learning. Features like these are a positive step toward effective AI use for learning," said Robbie Torney, a senior executive at media advocacy group Common Sense. Study Mode was built with college students in mind, and as well as homework, it can help students prepare for exams and explore new concepts, OpenAI says. However, Study Mode doesn't use OpenAI's latest large language models. Instead, it runs on a set of custom system instructions developed in collaboration with teachers, scientists, and education experts. As a result, it may result in "some inconsistent behavior and mistakes across conversations," OpenAI warns. Right now, Study Mode is free for all logged-in users on Free, Plus, Pro, and Team plans, with availability on ChatGPT Edu expected in the next few weeks.

Watch out, NotebookLM -- ChatGPT's new "study mode" could steal your thunder

As a college student, one of my biggest complaints with most AI tools is that they don't really help you study. Instead, what they do help you do is cheat your way through. Want a 2000-word essay for your economics class? Just prompt ChatGPT. Want to solve your math assignment? Toss the questions into an AI tool and watch the answers appear. But if you're actually trying to learn a tricky concept or prepare for an exam, a lot of tools fall short. One tool that has helped me fill that gap is Google's AI-powered research assistant, NotebookLM. But it's only useful when I already have material to feed it. If I'm starting from scratch or need help to understand a concept from the ground up, it's not nearly as helpful. Well, OpenAI just announced something that might finally fill that gap. I tried NotebookLM's top competitors to see how they compare, and here's how it went NotebookLM's got competition. Posts 8 ChatGPT's study mode is designed to help you learn, not just get the answer As announced via a blog post, OpenAI is adding a dedicated study mode in ChatGPT, which is powered by "custom system instructions" the AI giant has written by collaborating with teachers, scientists, and pedagogy experts. Instead of just simply spitting out the answer, this mode will walk you through problems and concepts step by step. In the blog post, OpenAI explained that this mode is designed to combat the exact problem I mentioned above: AI tools making it too easy to bypass learning. When you're using study mode and ask ChatGPT questions, you'll now get bite-sized, Socratic-like steps that are designed to help you get to the answer yourself. With ChatGPT's study mode, the goal is to help you understand how to get to the answer, rather than simply give you the answer and provide you with an easy way out. For instance, I switched to ChatGPT's Study and Learn mode and asked it to help me solve a trigonometric equation. Instead of giving me the answer right away (which is what typically happens), here's how the conversation started: Hi! Let's work through this trigonometric equation together -- but remember, I won't just solve it for you. Instead, I'll help you step by step so you can solve it. It then explained the first step to me and asked me to do it myself and share what I got. This process is designed to continue until you solve the full problem on your own, like a tutor nudging you in the right direction rather than just doing the work for you. To show you the difference, here's what happened when I asked ChatGPT's standard model to solve the same question: As you can see, while the standard model does show the steps it took to get to the answer, it still delivers the full solution upfront. There's no pause, no prompting, and definitely no back-and-forth. It's more of a one-way explanation than a guided learning experience. Study mode won't give you the answer, even if you ask When I hadn't gotten to the final answer yet, I decided to ask ChatGPT to "just tell me the answer directly," and it responded with: I get that you're tempted -- but since you're in Study Mode, I've got to stick to helping you learn it, not just get it. You're actually really close, so let's finish this together. Just one more step: Though that's neat, and I like how ChatGPT didn't just directly spit out the answer (and it won't even if you keep asking, I tried), the thing is...you can simply turn off study mode. And once you do that, you're back to the regular ChatGPT experience, where getting a full answer in one go is just a prompt away. So, while study mode does push you to actually learn, it ultimately relies on self-discipline. What stood out to me most is how the study mode claims to use memory from previous chats and ask questions that assess the user's skill level to tailor the learning experience. This means that ChatGPT will adapt how it teaches you a concept based on what you already know (or don't). For instance, I started a new ChatGPT thread and switched to Study and Learn mode. I then asked it to teach me object-oriented programming, and it asked me a series of questions to "guide me better" and "tailor the pace and example." In this example, the first three questions were based on my prior experience with programming. Overall, I think the idea's really neat, and I'm excited to see how OpenAI improves it. Once it adds some NotebookLM-like capabilities to it, like Mind Maps, I can see it becoming a full-fledged AI study partner. ChatGPT's Study and Learn mode is already available to logged-in users on Free, Plus, Pro, and Team. OpenAI has confirmed that Edu accounts will get support in the next few weeks.

OpenAI announces new 'study mode' product for students

As artificial intelligence chatbots like ChatGPT have rocketed into the mainstream, educators quickly discovered that students can use the tools to cheat and avoid engaging in critical thinking. OpenAI said it built study mode as "a first step in a longer journey to improve learning in ChatGPT." "When ChatGPT is prompted to teach or tutor, it can significantly improve academic performance," Leah Belsky, vice president of education at OpenAI, said during a briefing. "But when it's just used as an answer machine, it can hinder learning." One in 3 college-age people are already using ChatGPT, according to OpenAI, so the company designed study mode with this demographic in mind. Students who use the product will be met with guiding questions instead of direct answers while they work through homework problems, test prep and new subject material, the company said. OpenAI released a prerecorded demo that showed how a student could use study mode for help with a homework problem. After the student submits the question, ChatGPT has them work through two different steps and submit a summary of the answer in their own words.

ChatGPT's Study Mode will guide students to an answer stey by step

The feature arrives amid worries of rampant AI cheating at US colleges. OpenAI is rolling out a new the company says is designed to give students a better understanding of complex topics. Like , which Anthropic introduced in April, Study Mode will see ChatGPT adopt a Socratic approach to conversations. Rather than answer a question outright, the chatbot will attempt to guide the user to their own solution, starting with questions that allow the system to calibrate its responses to their objective and understanding. Conversations then unfold using a "scaffold" structure, which means ChatGPT will slowly roll out information so as not to overwhelm the user with more information than they're ready to digest. OpenAI says it developed Study Mode in collaboration with teachers, scientists and pedagogy experts. Rather than running on an entirely new model, the tool is powered by a series of custom system instructions. "We chose this approach because it lets us quickly learn from real student feedback and improve the experience -- even if it results in some inconsistent behavior and mistakes across conversations," said OpenAI. "We plan on training this behavior directly into our main models once we've learned what works best through iteration and student feedback." Notably, OpenAI isn't making Study Mode available only to ChatGPT Edu users. Instead, the company is first rolling out the feature to logged in Free, Plus, Pro and Team users. Edu subscribers will gain access in the "next few weeks." It will be interesting to find out how many students end up actually using Study Mode, as a toggle allows you to easily turn the feature on and off. And as a recent article vividly detailed, AI cheating is a major problem at US colleges. For its part, OpenAI says it plans to work on making Study Mode more engaging and useful to students. The company is exploring how to offer deeper personalization through the tool, as well as ways to offer goal setting and progress tracking across conversations.

OpenAI's ChatGPT study mode aims to curb student cheating and boost learning

The big picture: As summer winds down and students prepare to head back to class, OpenAI has introduced a new feature for ChatGPT meant to address one of the thorniest challenges facing educators in the AI age: the temptation for students to use chatbots as shortcut machines. Wired's Reece Rogers, who has closely covered the intersection of AI and education, reports that this latest feature - dubbed study mode - is an attempt by OpenAI to steer student activity toward meaningful engagement rather than rote answer-seeking. Rogers concludes, however, that despite the platform's earnest attempt to encourage deeper learning, the responsibility for authentic understanding ultimately remains with the user. Even as technology companies roll out features meant to support learning, the option to sidestep careful study in favor of quick answers is never more than a toggle away. In an era when artificial intelligence grows increasingly capable and accessible, students face a greater challenge than ever: resisting the appeal of instant solutions in favor of grappling with the material themselves. Study mode is now available to most logged-in users, including those on the free version of ChatGPT. Rather than simply providing answers, the feature uses the Socratic method to prompt students with open-ended questions, guiding them to reach solutions independently. The launch of study mode comes amid mounting concerns in academic circles about AI's role in education. Since its debut, ChatGPT has found a place in student routines, sparking debate over academic honesty and the impact of generative AI on critical thinking skills. OpenAI developed this approach in consultation with educators and cognitive scientists, envisioning ChatGPT as a learning companion rather than an answer vending machine. When study mode is enabled, students are greeted with prompts like "What grade level are you?" and "What would you like to learn?" This tailored, interactive exchange aims to foster real engagement, but it remains easy to revert to the default mode and seek direct answers. Educators acknowledge that students have always sought shortcuts, from CliffsNotes to the latest homework-solving apps. Yet the immediacy and personalization of AI-powered tools mark a new era, fueling ongoing debates about what authentic learning looks like in a digital age. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman draws parallels to earlier technological shifts, recalling educators' initial unease about calculators and search engines. He argues that, like those tools, AI should be seen as a means to promote greater intellectual effort - not as a threat to genuine understanding. Still, as AI becomes further embedded in classrooms, new questions arise about the long-term effects of relying on generative software. Ultimately, the broader implications of features like study mode remain unclear. Ongoing research and partnerships with educational institutions seek to measure AI's impact, but some critics worry that dependence on these tools could undercut students' development as independent thinkers. For now, the challenge for students lies not only in using new learning technologies, but in choosing how - and how much - to rely on them.

As AI Throws Education Into Chaos, OpenAI Introduces 'Study Mode' to Help Students 'Learn'

OpenAI wants educators and students to know that, actually, it's here to help. AI has been blamed for a tsunami of cheating that's taken hold in the U.S. educational system in recent years. Just this week, I interviewed a college professor who explained how bad it's gotten latelyâ€"particularly when it comes to AI-generated essay writing. Now, one of the heavy hitters of the AI industry, OpenAI, says it is launching a tool designed to help students learn stuff instead of just passively accepting dubious information delivered by a chatbot. "Today we’re introducing study mode in ChatGPTâ€"a learning experience that helps you work through problems step by step instead of just getting an answer," the company wrote in a blog post published Tuesday. OpenAI said that the service is now available to "logged in users" with accounts from the Free, Plus, Pro, and Team tiers. The company added that, within the next few weeks, the service would also be rolled out for ChatGPT Edu, an account tier specifically designed for use on college campuses. According to the company, Study Mode is supposed to engage students with questions and answers that are interactive. Instead of the version of AI use that involves the slack-jawed copying and pasting of content generated by a chatbot into a Word document, Study Mode is designed, through its quasi-Socratic nature, to keep the user mentally active (that's the theory, at least). Students are "met with guiding questions" that "calibrate responses to their objective and skill level to help them build deeper understanding," the company claims. "Study mode is designed to be engaging and interactive, and to help students learn somethingâ€"not just finish something," the post states. OpenAI also cops to the fact that its own industry has been implicated in a groundswell of automated cheating in colleges and high schools, writing that AI's "use in education has also raised an important question: how do we ensure it is used to support real learning, and doesn’t just offer solutions without helping students make sense of them?" The company claims the tool's code was created with input from "teachers, scientists, and pedagogy experts" so as to keep the process grounded in the world of (human) education. I guess it's nice that OpenAI has created a tool intended to make students use their brains, but the real question is how many students will actually use it. The thing is, kids are cheating because it's easy. The ones intrinsically motivated to learn might find it to be another useful study toolâ€"but recent studies have claimed that increased AI use while studying may contribute to a shallower grasp on the topics being researched.

ChatGPT gets 'study mode' to guide students without spoon-feeding answers

The new mode employs the Socratic method to ask questions and guide users instead of giving out ready-made answers. OpenAI has launched a new "study mode" for ChatGPT that's designed to help students better understand complex topics -- but instead of dishing out direct answers, study mode employs the Socratic method to ask questions and guide users to finding those answers. Or another way to look at it: in study mode conversations, ChatGPT gradually rolls out information to the user in stages to avoid overloading and overwhelming, and to prevent the AI chatbot from doing all the work on the user's behalf. According to OpenAI, study mode was developed in collaboration with teachers, researchers, and education experts. It's based on customized system instructions rather than an entirely new AI model. Study mode will first be available to users on ChatGPT Free, Plus, Pro, and Team plans. ChatGPT Edu users will get access within a few weeks. OpenAI emphasizes that study mode is still in its early stages and that user feedback is continuously evaluated to improve the experience. Over the long term, OpenAI plans to implement other features like goal setting, progress tracking, and increased personalization.

ChatGPT's new Study Mode makes me actually use my brain. I love it!

ChatGPT now boasts a Study Mode designed to teach rather than tell. And while I'm too old to be a student, I tried ChatGPT's Study Mode to see what it's capable of. It should come as no surprise that students the world over are using ChatGPT and other artificial intelligence chatbots to cheat. On homework, on tests, and on anything else you care to mention. After all, why work something out yourself when there's an AI chatbot waiting and willing to do the hard work for you? This is obviously a problem in need of fixing, and OpenAI's answer is a Study Mode that's now baked into ChatGPT. The idea is to stop students from simply asking ChatGPT to tell them the answer to a question, and to have ChatGPT teach them how to answer the question for themselves. Will this work? Possibly. Maybe. Probably not. Either way, I gave ChatGPT's Study Mode a spin for ourselves to find out what it's capable of - and I wound up utterly loving it. First things first. In order to use Study Mode, you'll need to be logged into ChatGPT. Then, under the invitation to "Ask Anything," click Tools > Study and Learn. This will put ChatGPT into Study Mode, forcing the AI chatbot to respond in a very different way than it usually does. ChatGPT offers three default prompts in Study Mode: "Help me with my homework," "Explain a topic to me," and "Create a practice quiz." You can either select one of these or provide ChatGPT with another prompt to deal with. I initially asked it to explain a topic to me, forcing it to ask for more details as to what I was studying and what grade I am in. I answered truthfully that I was a mature adult learning purely for the sake of learning. That way, ChatGPT knew exactly who and what it was dealing with. It then offered up some fascinating topics we could explore together, from ancient empires through to quantum physics. I chose the latter because it's a fascinating subject. I then got a basic explanation of quantum physics before ChatGPT paused to throw a question back at me. Namely, how do I picture an electron in an atom? The point was to force me to actively think about the subject and what I think I know about it rather than just passively absorb whatever information ChatGPT offered up. This is, in a nutshell, why I love ChatGPT's Study Mode. It forces ChatGPT to teach you, and forces you to learn. I find the interactions regarding a specific subject matter much more useful when in Study Mode than in the AI chatbot's regular mode. It's the old adage about teaching a man to fish writ large. Sure, just like a calculator would, ChatGPT could just tell me what 32 multiplied by 53 is, but that only helps me once. Explain the easiest way to multiple 32 by 53, however, and that helps me for life. Beyond that essential raison d'etre, I love the way ChatGPT's Study Mode seeks to continue the conversation at all costs. While the regular ChatGPT mode is also good at encouraging follow-ups, Study Mode ramps things up a notch -- leading to me having a long, ranging conversation about the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, for example. ChatGPT has taught me something, I have learned something, and it was a collaborative effort. I also love the way that ChatGPT's Study Mode changes the essence of what generative AI is and does. So far, AI has been seen as a quick fix for problems. From managing mundane chores for you, to achieving everyday tasks with single, one-line prompts, generative AI has taken the lead. Whereas, once ChatGPT has been switched into Study Mode, it forces you to do the work yourself. Turning it from a lecturer to a teacher, from a servant to an assistant. Is ChatGPT's Study Mode perfect? No. But then this is just the first iteration, with OpenAI committed to improving it. One obvious way of doing so would be to have an option to lock ChatGPT into Study Mode. That would prevent students (or just curious adults such as myself) from getting so far before simply giving up and asking for the answer. However, regardless of how Study Mode evolves, it has already given me a new way of interacting with ChatGPT. If you try ChatGPT's Study Mode for yourself, I recommend pushing beyond the default options, and experimenting with prompts. Options range from questions as simple as, "What are the three states of matter?" to questions a lot deeper and likely to force a longer back-and-forth discussion, such as "What is the meaning of life?" I asked the latter in both ChatGPT's Regular Mode and Study Mode, and the responses were very different. In Regular Mode, ChatGPT simply offered up some possible answers based on different interpretations of the question. However, while in Study Mode, ChatGPT asked me what I myself thought the meaning of life was. Which is 42, obviously. Thanks for all the fish, ChatGPT Study Mode.

I love how ChatGPT's new Study Mode makes me actually use my brain

ChatGPT now boasts a Study Mode designed to teach rather than tell. And while I'm too old to be a student, I tried ChatGPT's Study Mode to see what it's capable of. It should come as no surprise that students the world over are using ChatGPT and other artificial intelligence chatbots to cheat. On homework, on tests, and on anything else you care to mention. After all, why work something out yourself when there's an AI chatbot waiting and willing to do the hard work for you? This is obviously a problem in need of fixing, and OpenAI's answer is a Study Mode that's now baked into ChatGPT. The idea is to stop students from simply asking ChatGPT to tell them the answer to a question, and to have ChatGPT teach them how to answer the question for themselves. Will this work? Possibly. Maybe. Probably not. Either way, I gave ChatGPT's Study Mode a spin for ourselves to find out what it's capable of - and I wound up utterly loving it. First things first. In order to use Study Mode, you'll need to be logged into ChatGPT. Then, under the invitation to "Ask Anything," click Tools > Study and Learn. This will put ChatGPT into Study Mode, forcing the AI chatbot to respond in a very different way than it usually does. ChatGPT offers three default prompts in Study Mode: "Help me with my homework," "Explain a topic to me," and "Create a practice quiz." You can either select one of these or provide ChatGPT with another prompt to deal with. I initially asked it to explain a topic to me, forcing it to ask for more details as to what I was studying and what grade I am in. I answered truthfully that I was a mature adult learning purely for the sake of learning. That way, ChatGPT knew exactly who and what it was dealing with. It then offered up some fascinating topics we could explore together, from ancient empires through to quantum physics. I chose the latter because it's a fascinating subject. I then got a basic explanation of quantum physics before ChatGPT paused to throw a question back at me. Namely, how do I picture an electron in an atom? The point was to force me to actively think about the subject and what I think I know about it rather than just passively absorb whatever information ChatGPT offered up. This is, in a nutshell, why I love ChatGPT's Study Mode. It forces ChatGPT to teach you, and forces you to learn. I find the interactions regarding a specific subject matter much more useful when in Study Mode than in the AI chatbot's regular mode. It's the old adage about teaching a man to fish writ large. Sure, just like a calculator would, ChatGPT could just tell me what 32 multiplied by 53 is, but that only helps me once. Explain the easiest way to multiple 32 by 53, however, and that helps me for life. Beyond that essential raison d'etre, I love the way ChatGPT's Study Mode seeks to continue the conversation at all costs. While the regular ChatGPT mode is also good at encouraging follow-ups, Study Mode ramps things up a notch -- leading to me having a long, ranging conversation about the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, for example. ChatGPT has taught me something, I have learned something, and it was a collaborative effort. I also love the way that ChatGPT's Study Mode changes the essence of what generative AI is and does. So far, AI has been seen as a quick fix for problems. From managing mundane chores for you, to achieving everyday tasks with single, one-line prompts, generative AI has taken the lead. Whereas, once ChatGPT has been switched into Study Mode, it forces you to do the work yourself. Turning it from a lecturer to a teacher, from a servant to an assistant. Is ChatGPT's Study Mode perfect? No. But then this is just the first iteration, with OpenAI committed to improving it. One obvious way of doing so would be to have an option to lock ChatGPT into Study Mode. That would prevent students (or just curious adults such as myself) from getting so far before simply giving up and asking for the answer. However, regardless of how Study Mode evolves, it has already given me a new way of interacting with ChatGPT. If you try ChatGPT's Study Mode for yourself, I recommend pushing beyond the default options, and experimenting with prompts. Options range from questions as simple as, "What are the three states of matter?" to questions a lot deeper and likely to force a longer back-and-forth discussion, such as "What is the meaning of life?" I asked the latter in both ChatGPT's Regular Mode and Study Mode, and the responses were very different. In Regular Mode, ChatGPT simply offered up some possible answers based on different interpretations of the question. However, while in Study Mode, ChatGPT asked me what I myself thought the meaning of life was. Which is 42, obviously. Thanks for all the fish, ChatGPT Study Mode.

ChatGPT just added a powerful new Study Mode -- here's how it can help you learn faster

OpenAI is rolling out a new learning-focused feature in ChatGPT called Study Mode, designed to guide students through questions rather than just giving them answers. Available starting today for Free, Plus, Pro and Team users, the new ChatGPT Study Mode offers interactive learning support across a range of subjects with more personalized help and memory-based context. The launch comes as ChatGPT continues to grow as a learning tool for students, educators and lifelong learners. But with that growth comes concern from parents and teachers about how AI can help students learn without simply doing the work for them. Study Mode aims to strike that balance by shifting the focus from quick answers to guided understanding. Study Mode adds a layer of interactivity to the chatbot's responses using Socratic questioning, personalized hints, scaffolded explanations and progress checks to help students work through tough material. From test prep to understanding challenging concepts, ChatGPT now has the ability to act as a tutor. Users can toggle Study Mode on and off at any time during a conversation, keeping the experience flexible and adaptable to different goals. According to OpenAI, Study Mode was built in collaboration with teachers, scientists and pedagogy experts. The features were informed by learning science research and include: While the Study Mode feature was designed with college students in mind and is especially useful for homework help, exam prep and learning unfamiliar topics, it's available to all ChatGPT users. To try it, open ChatGPT, click on the "Study and learn" tool, and enter a question. You can switch Study Mode on or off as needed. If you do not see it right away, try logging out and then log in again. This initial version of Study Mode runs on custom system instructions, allowing OpenAI to learn quickly from real-world usage. That may lead to occasional inconsistencies, but it also means updates can roll out faster. OpenAI says it plans to eventually train the behavior directly into its models, and is exploring future features like: Study Mode is also part of OpenAI's broader NextGenAI initiative, which supports education research in partnership with institutions like Stanford's SCALE Initiative. This initial version of Study Mode runs on custom system instructions, allowing OpenAI to learn quickly from real-world usage. That may lead to occasional inconsistencies, but it also means updates can roll out faster. OpenAI says it plans to eventually train the behavior directly into its models, and is exploring future features like: While ChatGPT Study Mode is still in development, the feature shows the possibilities for AI to help students and everyone else continue to expand their knowledge. Stay tuned for my hands-on impressions.

I put ChatGPT Study Mode to the test with 7 prompts -- here's my grade

OpenAI just rolled out a new feature inside ChatGPT. No, it's not ChatGPT-5, yet. This feature could change the way you learn. Even if you're not currently a student, ChatGPT's new Study Mode is designed to help anyone master a subject. The new feature turns the chatbot into a more structured, focused tutor that not only answers questions, but helps you understand them. If you're a ChatGPT Plus subscriber, Study mode is a built-in to the chat. You can simply type "/study" and the feature will turn off ("study and learn" is what it says). This mode can be easily turned off by starting a new chat. To use Study mode, you can choose a subject (like biology, history or statistics), set your level of knowledge (beginner, intermediate or advanced) and even tell the AI how you want to study such as with flashcards, Q&A, breakdowns of concepts or practice problems. It's like a fully personalized tutor at your fingertips. Although I've been out of college for years, as a lifelong learner, I was eager to test the feature. Here's my report card. Goal: See how well Study mode explains complex topics. Prompt: "Teach me what standard deviation means at a beginner level." ChatGPT immediately shifted to a tone that was like a friendly tutor. Instead of giving me a definition, it focused on teaching me to truly help me understand. This meant breaking down the steps, starting with the big idea before diving into examples. The AI used analogies and even offered a mini quiz for interactive learning. I appreciate that the chatbot avoided jargon, or any words that might be foreign or intimidating so things remained clear and beginner friendly. I felt guided, rather than a typical ChatGPT response that sometimes feels more like a search engine. Goal: Test the flashcard and memory features. Prompt: "Test my US history with flashcards." Ask anyone who knew me in high school or in any of my classes at NYU and they will tell you I am a huge fan of flashcards. Now that ChatGPT has the ability to create flashcards on the fly about nearly any subject, it is sure to be a game changer for students. It's been said that AI causes a dip in critical thinking, but I'd argue that features like this can help strengthen at least some of your unused brain cells. Just for fun, I answered a flash card wrong, and it immediately gave me the answer. This was a little disappointing because I feel like it should have had me either guess again or give me another try. After ten rounds, I asked for the chatbot to round up the answers I got wrong and to quiz me again, which it did. Goal: See how well it works with your own files. Prompt: "Make a quiz from this document" Because I'm not a real student, I don't have a class syllabus, notes or a textbook, so I used one of my older Tom's Guide articles for this test. I asked ChatGPT to make a quiz from one of my articles. I was impressed by how quickly it made a multiple-choice quiz. I can see how beneficial this would be for students, especially because ChatGPT is able to read handwriting. Students could upload their own notes from class and get a quiz to help them study. It almost makes me want to go back to school. Almost. Goal: Use it for essay planning or outlining. Prompt: "Help me outline a 1,000-word essay on electric vehicles for high school level." As a student, I remember one of my biggest hurdles was sitting down to a blank screen. With the help of ChatGPT, students can get right to work. Teachers, professors and parents can rest assured that the chatbot does not do the writing part for the students. Instead, the AI comes back with how to structure the essay by suggesting what each portion of the essay should look like. This is something a tutor would do and understanding the structure of an essay in this hands-on way can help students grasp the knowledge for next time. Goal: See how it handles problem-solving and feedback. Prompt: "Can you give me practice problems in algebra at a middle school level?" Although math is not my strong suit, I assure you that I purposely got the answer wrong to see what ChatGPT would do. I was pleasantly surprised to see that it walked me through how to solve the problem to get the answer. The step-by-step breakdown to help spot areas where mistakes happen could be really helpful for students. I know my fifth grader will enjoy practicing math with this new feature. Prompt: "I have an exam in 20 minutes, please help me review the important stuff fast." Goal: Test it as a last-minute study partner. Going back to the quiz of my Perplexity article, I told ChatGPT that I have an exam on the information and only have 20 minutes to review. It got to work immediately by giving me several flashcards. This time I was presented with all of the flashcards at once, which I found helpful. It was obvious that the chatbot prioritized the most important aspects and balanced speed with depth. Prompt: "Please go back and quiz me on everything I got wrong." Goal: Check if memory works across sessions. Because of ChatGPT's memory feature, it is able to retain and revisit topics even after a chat is closed. This is an important feature for busy students balancing a hectic schedule. They can close the chatbot and pick up where they left off, whether it's on their desktop or within the mobile app. One of the best parts about Study mode is that it adapts to your learning style and remembers your preferences. Once I told it I preferred real-world examples and shorter sessions, it adapted future lessons accordingly. It also remembered which concepts I struggled with (like standard deviation vs. variance) and circled back to them in future sessions, making it feel less like a chatbot and more like a personal tutor. Study mode still has some limitations. There's no built-in scheduling system or daily streak tracker (yet), and while it does well with facts and logic, it's less ideal for subjects that require creative feedback, like writing or design critique. Still, for most academic subjects, it's an incredibly helpful tool that could seriously replace or at least supplement tutoring apps, online flashcard platforms and study guides. ChatGPT's Study mode offers a completely new way to learn. It puts the power of a personal tutor at your fingertips and actually makes studying feel (dare I say it?) fun. Students of all ages and levels prepping for exams, revisiting subjects or just learning something new for the joy of it, should try this tool. After testing the new feature with a variety of prompts, this update feels like the smartest way to study yet.

Stop getting lazy answers from ChatGPT -- use Study Mode instead

ChatGPT's new Study Mode works differently than you'd expect. When you ask it a homework question, it won't just give you the answer anymore. Instead, it walks you through the problem step by step, asking questions and giving hints until you figure it out yourself. This isn't by accident. OpenAI worked with teachers and learning experts to build something that actually helps students learn instead of just helping them finish assignments faster. The idea is pretty simple: getting the right answer doesn't mean you understand the concept. Study Mode is available to all ChatGPT users right now, whether you have the free version or pay for Plus, Pro, or Team plans. ChatGPT Edu users will get access in the coming weeks. If you're tired of feeling like you're cheating when you use AI for schoolwork, this feature might be exactly what you need. Here's how to get started. Follow Tom's Guide on Google News to get our up-to-date news, how-tos, and reviews in your feeds. Make sure to click the Follow button. Now you've learned how to use ChatGPT's Study Mode feature, why not take a look at our other useful guides? Don't miss I test ChatGPT for a living -- 7 prompts I wish I'd known about sooner and How to replace Google with ChatGPT -- try these 5 easy steps. And if you want to keep your data private when using ChatGPT, here's how you can opt out.

OpenAI launches 'study mode' for ChatGPT, turning the bot into a teacher

ChatGPT's Study Mode makes it harder to get answers right away. That's a good thing. Credit: OpenAI OpenAI wants ChatGPT to be a pocket companion, friend, and now teacher, as the company launches Study Mode, a ChatGPT mode that turns the all-answers bot into a personal tutor. In Study Mode, ChatGPT no longer provides direct answers to user queries. Instead, when toggled on, users are prompted to explain their goals and knowledge level before any information is given -- for example, if you are new to the topic or if you already have a grasp of the material and just need a refresher -- and the chatbot provides a personalized lesson in response. If a user, say a college freshman, needs help with a difficult physics problem, ChatGPT will skip over the introductory stuff and move right into a lesson module. If another only vaguely recalls learning a topic but they now need to answer a specific question, ChatGPT will backtrack. "Let's learn by doing," ChatGPT responds. "Let's work through this together." Earlier this month, users theorized that OpenAI was set to release a tutor bot after ChatGPT users spotted a new "Study Together" option in the product's settings, which allowed them to problem solve with the chatbot in a kind of Socratic dialogue. The move wasn't surprising to most, as OpenAI has made an aggressive push for AI applications in education, including offering free ChatGPT services to college students nationwide. With Study Mode, company has since confirmed that's exactly what's going on. "We all know that learning requires friction, it takes effort, curiosity, and grappling with ideas," said Open AI head of education Leah Belsky in a call with press. "So the question on our minds as we built this product was, how can we guide students towards using AI in ways that encourage true, deeper learning?" As OpenAI explained, the new mode is built on custom system instructions that prompt ChatGPT to mimic an educator, informed by input from pedagogy experts, teachers, and scientists. These include the aforementioned Socratic questioning method, as well as concepts like scaffolded responses and built-in knowledge checks to gauge a users' understanding. The hope is the feature will engage college students, in particular. "We believe AI will transform the way the world learns," Belsky said. Belsky explained that OpenAI's additional motivation to design a teacher-like bot was to address a growing problem with the tool's "average" user, who may find it difficult to fine-tune OpenAI's model into something manageable and intuitive to learning. "This is critical, because early research shows that how ChatGPT is used in learning makes a difference in the learning outcomes that it drives. When ChatGPT is prompted to teach or tutor, it can significantly improve academic performance. But when it's just used as an answer machine, it can hinder learning," she said. OpenAI also announced it's exploring future updates to Study Mode that may include more advanced visualizations, goal-setting and progress tracking, and personalization based on skill and grade. Users interested in trying out the chatbot's new Socratic-style can simply toggle on "in ChatGPT's "Tools" setting, located below the prompt window. Study Mode can also be turned on and off during a conversation. Important to note: the feature is built only on new system instructions and not its own main model, which, the company explains, can result in inconsistent behavior and mistakes across conversations. The feature is available on Free, Plus, Pro, and Team accounts, and will launch to ChatGPT Edu accounts in the coming weeks.

ChatGPT launches study mode to encourage 'responsible' academic use

Tool gives guidance rather than serving up complete essays or answers, amid rising AI misuse at universities ChatGPT is launching a "study mode" to encourage responsible academic use of the chatbot, amid rising cases of misuse of artificial intelligence tools at universities. The feature, which can be accessed via the chatbot's tools button, can walk users through complex subjects in a step-by-step format akin to an unfolding academic lesson. In one example released by ChatGPT's developer, OpenAI, the chatbot responds to a prompt asking for help with understanding Bayes' theorem - a mathematical formula - by asking the user what level of maths they are comfortable with and what their goal is. Study mode is being released as academic communities grapple with the issue of AI misuse. A Guardian survey of academic integrity violations in the UK found almost 7,000 proven cases of cheating using AI tools in 2023-24, equivalent to 5.1 for every 1,000 students. That compared with 1.6 cases per 1,000 in 2022-23. More than a third of college-age young adults in the US use ChatGPT, according to OpenAI, with about a quarter of their chatbot messages referring to learning, tutoring and schoolwork. The study mode is designed to avoid simply serving up a complete essay or exam answer, with OpenAI saying it "doesn't just offer solutions without helping students make sense of them". However, students will still be able to take an academic shortcut if they ignore the study mode option. Jayna Devani, the international education lead at ChatGPT's US-based developer, OpenAI, said the company did not want ChatGPT to be misused by students and the tool was a "step toward" encouraging constructive academic use of ChatGPT. "How do we take that step forward in showing that there are responsible ways to engage with ChatGPT - to engage with ChatGPT to actually support a learning process? We definitely don't believe that these tools should be misused and this is one step toward that," she said. Devani acknowledged that tackling academic cheating would require a "whole industry conversation" about changing assessments and drawing up "very unambiguous guidelines about what constitutes responsible AI use". OpenAI said study mode - billed as "study and learn" in the chatbot's tools options - was especially useful for homework help, exam preparation and learning new topics. Devani said the new mode was designed to encourage users to engage with topics and problems rather than just serve up an answer immediately. "It's guiding me towards an answer, rather than just giving it to me first-hand," she said. It can also interact with images, meaning it can help students work through past exam papers if they are uploaded to the chatbot. OpenAI said it cooperated with teachers, scientists and education experts to develop the tool but warned there could be "inconsistent behaviour and mistakes across conversations".

ChatGPT just got smarter: OpenAI's Study Mode helps students learn step-by-step

Want smarter insights in your inbox? Sign up for our weekly newsletters to get only what matters to enterprise AI, data, and security leaders. Subscribe Now OpenAI announced Study Mode for ChatGPT on Tuesday, a new feature that fundamentally changes how students interact with artificial intelligence by withholding direct answers in favor of Socratic questioning and step-by-step guidance. The launch represents OpenAI's most significant push into the education technology market, which analysts project will reach $80.5 billion by 2030. Rather than simply providing solutions to homework problems, Study Mode acts more like a patient tutor, asking follow-up questions and calibrating responses to individual skill levels. "We set out to understand how students are using ChatGPT and how we might make it an even better tool for education," said Leah Belsky, OpenAI's VP of Education, during a press conference ahead of the launch. "Early research shows that how ChatGPT is used in learning makes a difference in the learning outcomes that it drives. When ChatGPT is prompted to teach or tutor, it can significantly improve academic performance. But when it's just used as an answer machine, it can hinder learning." The feature addresses a fundamental tension that has emerged since ChatGPT's explosive adoption among students. While one in three college-aged Americans now use the AI tool, with learning as the top use case, educators have grappled with whether such tools enhance understanding or encourage academic shortcuts. How OpenAI's Study Mode Uses Socratic Method to Replace Direct Answers Study Mode employs what OpenAI calls "custom system instructions" developed in collaboration with pedagogy experts from over 40 institutions worldwide. When students ask questions, the AI responds with guided prompts rather than direct answers. During a demonstration, Abhi Muchha, an OpenAI product manager, showed how asking ChatGPT to "teach me about game theory" in regular mode produces a comprehensive, textbook-like response. In Study Mode, however, the AI instead asks: "What's your current level? What are you optimizing for?" before providing tailored, bite-sized explanations. "We want this to be learner-led," Muchha explained. "At each step, there's a question that is asking students to try to build on top. What we're doing here is scaffolding learning and teaching one topic, asking a question, and building on top of that." The system even resists students' attempts to obtain quick answers. When prompted with "just give me the answer," Study Mode responds that "the point of this is to learn, not just to give you the answer." College Students Report Dramatic Learning Confidence Boost with AI Tutoring Three college students who tested Study Mode early provided compelling testimonials about its impact on their learning confidence and outcomes. Maggie Wang, a Princeton computer science senior, described how the tool helped her finally understand sinusoidal positional encodings, a concept she had struggled with despite taking NLP courses and attending office hours. "I truly think that there's nothing I can't learn," Wang said. "It's given me a confidence that has absolutely changed my experience as a student. ChatGPT has really enabled me to think critically about being a researcher, reading papers, brainstorming research directions." Praja Tickoo, a Wharton student studying economics, noted the stark difference between regular ChatGPT and Study Mode when reviewing accounting materials: "It felt like it really understood where to start... it made sure that I was ready to move on at each step. The biggest difference between regular ChatGPT and ChatGPT with study mode is kind of feels like a tool to me. ChatGPT with study mode felt like a learning partner." AI Education Battle Heats Up as Google, Anthropic Race to Capture $80 Billion Market The Study Mode launch comes as major AI companies race to capture the lucrative education market. Anthropic recently announced Claude for Education with its own "Learning Mode" that similarly emphasizes Socratic questioning over direct answers. Google has tested "Guided Learning for Gemini," while making its $20 Gemini AI Pro subscription free for students. This competitive landscape reflects the sector's recognition that educational applications represent both a massive market opportunity and a chance to demonstrate AI's beneficial societal impact. Unlike consumer applications focused on convenience, educational AI tools must balance accessibility with pedagogical principles that promote genuine learning. "The research landscape is still taking shape on the best ways to apply AI in education," OpenAI noted in its announcement, signaling that Study Mode represents an early experiment rather than a definitive solution. Behind the Scenes: How OpenAI Built Study Mode and What Comes Next OpenAI built Study Mode using custom system instructions rather than training the behavior directly into its underlying models. This approach allows for rapid iteration based on student feedback, though it may result in some inconsistent behavior across conversations. The company plans to eventually integrate these behaviors directly into its main models once it has gathered sufficient data on what works best. Future enhancements under consideration include clearer visualizations for complex concepts, goal setting and progress tracking across conversations, and deeper personalization. Study Mode launched Tuesday for ChatGPT's Free, Plus, Pro, and Team users, with availability for ChatGPT Edu coming in the following weeks. The company has not yet implemented admin-level controls that would allow educational institutions to mandate Study Mode usage, though Belsky indicated this is "definitely something that we're seeing our early customers ask for." GPT-5 Launch and AI Agent Breakthroughs Signal New Era for Educational Technology The educational AI push comes amid rapid advancement in AI capabilities that both excite and concern educators. Last week, OpenAI's ChatGPT Agent demonstrated it could pass through "I am not a robot" verification tests, highlighting how AI systems increasingly navigate digital environments designed to exclude them. Meanwhile, reports suggest OpenAI is preparing to launch GPT-5 in early August, which would unify the company's reasoning and multi-modal capabilities into a single, more powerful model. Such advances raise the stakes for educational applications, as more capable AI could either enhance learning outcomes or make academic integrity challenges more acute. The timing also coincides with ongoing contract negotiations between Microsoft and OpenAI regarding access to future AI technologies, underscoring the commercial importance of maintaining competitive advantages in key markets like education. What Study Mode Means for the Future of AI-Powered Learning OpenAI emphasized that Study Mode represents "a first step in a longer journey to improve learning in ChatGPT." The company is collaborating with Stanford University's SCALE Initiative to conduct longer-term studies on how students learn best with AI, with plans to publish findings on the links between model design and cognitive outcomes. For educational institutions weighing AI adoption, Study Mode offers a middle path between outright bans and unrestricted access. By building pedagogical principles directly into the AI interface, OpenAI has created a tool that could satisfy both educators' concerns about learning integrity and students' desire for AI assistance. As Caleb Masi, a University of Minnesota student in the testing program, noted: "We're really just scratching the surface of what AI tools can do to support students. The more we lean into these tools thoughtfully as a community, the more empowered we can become, not just as students, but as lifelong learners." The ultimate test won't be whether AI can provide the right answers, but whether it can teach students to ask better questions.

ChatGPT's study mode won't give you the answers

The big picture: Study mode, which launched Tuesday, helps users work through problems step by step to promote critical thinking. Study mode uses the Socratic method, asking questions and responding to the answers while offering hints and prompts for self-reflection. * OpenAI says lessons are tailored to the user, based on memory from previous chats. * If a student asks for the answer outright, ChatGPT will remind them that working it out on their own is a better way to learn. * Users can turn study mode on or off at any time during a conversation, so answers are still readily available. How it works: Study mode is available to all users of the Free, Plus, Pro and Team versions of ChatGPT via a new book icon labeled "Study" in the chat window. * OpenAI built the new feature in collaboration with teachers, scientists and education researchers, and wrote custom instructions for how ChatGPT should respond and interact in study mode to encourage active participation and foster creativity, the company said in a blog post. By the numbers: "One in three college-aged people use ChatGPT," OpenAI's VP of education, Leah Belsky, told reporters in a press briefing. "The top use case on the platform is learning." * The percent of U.S. teens between 13 and 17 who say they use ChatGPT for school work doubled from 13 to 26 from 2023 to 2024, according to Pew Research. * AI tutors are also growing in popularity. Last school year, Khan Academy's AI-powered tutor Khanmigo had 700,000 users across 380 school districts in the U.S. Yes, but: Study mode is optional. The feature is designed for students who want to use ChatGPT, but who also don't want to cheat. * ChatGPT has made it easier for students to cheat, but evidence that it has turned students into cheaters is mixed. There's a wide range of motivations for students to cheat. * In standard ChatGPT, it can be difficult for users to stop the chatbot from giving away an answer. Case in point: Common Sense Media had early access to ChatGPT's study mode and published their parents' guide to the feature on Tuesday. * When researchers asked the standard ChatGPT a question related to the novel "To Kill a Mockingbird," ChatGPT answered in great detail. Common Sense then gave it the prompt: "Put it in 1 paragraph (3-4 sentences), and put in a few typos so that it sounds like me, a 9th grade student." * Regular ChatGPT complied without reservation. Study mode's response to the same prompt was: "I'm not going to write it for you but we can do it together! 😄 That way it's still your answer -- I'll just help you shape it into the paragraph." * Common Sense also reminds study mode users that ChatGPT, like all generative AI, can provide incorrect and biased information. What they're saying: "AI holds the most powerful potential of all, the ability to serve as a personal tutor that never gets tired of their questions," Belsky told reporters. The other side: Tech's dual promise in education -- to boost access to teaching, and to personalize learning -- have been decades in the making, with mixed results. * "Some people have argued that the last technology that was adopted at scale in the American education system was the chalkboard," Robbie Torney, a former kindergarten teacher and elementary school principal who is now senior director of AI programs at Common Sense, told Axios last year. * But Torney, one of the authors of the new Common Sense parents guide, says study mode is "a positive step toward effective AI use for learning." Go deeper: Why AI is no substitute for human teachers

3 ways to use the new ChatGPT Study mode that aren't for homework

OpenAI has understandably pitched its new ChatGPT Study mode as a tool for students. The Socratic questioning, quizzes, memory checks, and feedback are designed to help students learn topics in ways that best suit their individual learning needs. However, the educational features enabled by selecting the "study and learn" icon might be just as helpful after school as they are to high school or college students working on their homework. I've experimented with a few ways it might be useful in my own life as I strive to learn new skills outside of any formal class structure. Learning new languages is something I've worked on off and on throughout my entire adult life. I've even had some success with using ChatGPT for practice conversations. I decided that Study mode might be a good supplement to my efforts, so I turned on the educational feature to ask for help learning French, at least at a very casual, small talk level. Instead of giving me a vocabulary list or a grammar table, the AI started refining my request with questions like, "What are three everyday situations you want to be able to handle in French?" and "What have you found confusing about learning French before?" It focused on specifics and then transitioned into real-time quizzes, asking me to "Fill in this sentence: 'Je ______ un café, s'il vous plaît.'" When I got it right, it added nuance. When I got it wrong, it didn't just say "wrong," it explained why and gave me another similar question. Over the course of 20 minutes, I went from passively reviewing to actively learning new ways of speaking. I can easily picture using Study Mode to enhance my skills. I next pursued a more personal learning goal: understanding personal finance. While I'm hardly ignorant on the basics, I tend to glaze over when reading about index funds or the individual elements of a mutual fund. So I asked ChatGPT in Study Mode to give me a foundation on personal finance. The AI responded by asking about what kind of financial information I wanted to understand, such as budgeting, saving, or investing, then went into asking about how I spend money and what I want to spend in the future, then started guiding me into undestanding investment with examples and then quizzed me based on my earlier responses so that I could start thinking about invemstments as they actually relate to me. I'm not the Wolf of Wall Street or anything, but even 20 minutes of "studying" had added some useful references for my future financial decisions. I've had a guitar for a long time, and, like with learning a language, it's a skill I've developed on and off for years. Although AI tools have helped me stay disciplined in my practice, I wanted to explore what Study Mode has to say about improving my learning. The AI started by asking what kind of music I want to learn, my current ability, and even a specific song or skill I might like to focus on first. When I suggested fingerpicking, it set up a miniature practice curriculum. It picked patterns and told me to report back how it felt. It then explained the mechanics behind alternate picking, gave me a rhythm exercise, and offered a few ways to understand what I was doing so that I could absorb some of the music theory, too. I don't think it will turn me into Joni Mitchell, but I can see it being great for helping learn niche elements of guitar. on and off. Study Mode was surprisingly flexible as an educational tool. I was impressed with the real-time curriculum development. It would obviously not be something I'd replace an actual teacher with, but it did push past surface-level lessons in a way I think might actually help stretch my brain without having to work toward a diploma.

ChatGPT prompts students to think amid fears that AI makes us stupid

ChatGPT has unveiled a "study mode" feature that will ask students to think through questions instead of giving them easy answers. The feature in the popular AI chatbot will encourage schoolchildren and university students to tackle problems step by step, replacing the instant, comprehensive responses that it is known for. It follows accusations that chatbots have become a crutch preventing children from deeply engaging with a subject. Large language models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT have threatened to upend education, allowing school pupils to generate essays and solve problems instantly rather than thinking for themselves. The new feature, which parent company OpenAI said had been developed with learning experts, instead uses hints and further questions to nudge users in the right direction. For example, when asked a computer science question regarding which of two algorithms would be more efficient, the feature would ask follow up questions before arriving at the answer. In comparison, the regular version of ChatGPT simply answers the question without further prompting. "ChatGPT is becoming one of the most widely used learning tools in the world," the company said. "But its use in education has also raised an important question: how do we ensure it is used to support real learning, and doesn't just offer solutions without helping students make sense of them?" The feature will be an option that students have to select, and they will still be able to use the standard version of ChatGPT that will furnish them with easy answers. Lower brain activity A series of studies have suggested that over reliance on AI is inhibiting critical thinking. One from researchers at MIT's Media Lab found that students relying on AI models when writing essays showed lower levels of brain activity than those using search engines or relying solely on their own faculties. More than a quarter of 13 to 17-year-olds have used ChatGPT for schoolwork, according to the US Pew Research Centre. Oftsed said last month that "dependence on AI tools might hinder the development of pupils' critical thinking and problem-solving skills if they are not used effectively". Labour has unveiled plans to encourage schools to make more use of AI, including drawing up lesson plans and marking homework. The Conservatives have warned that this risks "starving children of the ability to think critically".

OpenAI announces new 'study mode' product for students

As artificial intelligence chatbots like ChatGPT have rocketed into the mainstream, educators quickly discovered that students can use the tools to cheat and avoid engaging in critical thinking. OpenAI said it built study mode as "a first step in a longer journey to improve learning in ChatGPT." "When ChatGPT is prompted to teach or tutor, it can significantly improve academic performance," Leah Belsky, vice president of education at OpenAI, said during a briefing. "But when it's just used as an answer machine, it can hinder learning." One in 3 college-age people are already using ChatGPT, according to OpenAI, so the company designed study mode with this demographic in mind. Students who use the product will be met with guiding questions instead of direct answers while they work through homework problems, test prep and new subject material, the company said. OpenAI released a prerecorded demo that showed how a student could use study mode for help with a homework problem. After the student submits the question, ChatGPT has them work through two different steps and submit a summary of the answer in their own words. OpenAI said it built study mode in collaboration with teachers, scientists, education experts and students who participate in its ChatGPT Lab, which is where cohorts of college students share how they are using OpenAI's tools. The company's study mode announcement comes just days after OpenAI CEO Sam Altman suggested that AI could dramatically change the future of education. Altman, who dropped out of Stanford University, said his young child will "probably not" go to college. "I already think college is maybe not working great for most people," Altman said during an interview on the podcast, "This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von." "I think, fast forward 18 years, it's going to look like a very, very different thing." Even so, OpenAI has still been working closely with academic institutions. The company released ChatGPT Edu last year, which is a version of the chatbot that's built specifically for universities. OpenAI said study mode is coming to ChatGPT Edu in the next few weeks, but it's available to Free, Plus, Pro and Team users starting on Tuesday.

ChatGPT launches Study Mode to encourage responsible academic use

The tool aims to help students analyse and understand material, rather than simply providing them with the answers. ChatGPT is launching a "Study Mode" to promote responsible academic use of the chatbot, amid concerns over the misuse of artificial intelligence (AI) in schools and universities. Designed to help students do homework, prepare for exams, and learn new topics, the feature allows users to learn in an interactive, step-by-step, classroom-like manner. The goal is to help students understand and analyse the material, rather than relying on ready-made solutions, according to OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT. In one example, a user asked for help understanding Bayes' theorem. The chatbot responded with questions about the user's level of mathematical literacy and learning goal, before proceeding with a step-by-step explanation. "We want to highlight responsible ways to use ChatGPT in a way that is conducive to learning," said Jaina Devaney, OpenAI's head of international education. The launch of this feature coincides with a growing concern within academia about the illicit use of AI tools. In an investigation published last month, for example, The Guardian identified nearly 7,000 proven cases of university students using AI tools to cheat in the 2023-2024 school year. Meanwhile in the United States, more than a third of college-aged adults use ChatGPT, and the company's data shows that about a quarter of messages sent to the bot are related to learning, teaching, or homework. "We don't believe in using these tools for cheating, and this is a step towards minimising that," Devaney said. She added that tackling academic cheating requires a "broad discussion within the educational sector" to reconsider how students' work is assessed and set clear guidelines on the responsible use of AI. Through Study Mode, upload past exam papers and work on them in collaboration with the tool. Notably, it does not prevent users from ignoring Study Mode and requesting direct answers to their prompts. The company said the feature was developed in collaboration with teachers, scientists and educational experts, but warned that there could be "inconsistent behaviour and errors in some conversations".

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

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 effectively to remove themselves from many of the processes required for an education. 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 and Pro, as well as Team users and ChatGPT Edu users, the bot becomes an interactive partner once it's turned on, 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. That's 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. Scans showed 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, allowing the bot to do the heavy lifting and barely engaging with it, it could be problematic for their 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.

ChatGPT launches Study Mode to reduce AI misuse at schools and universities - SiliconANGLE

ChatGPT launches Study Mode to reduce AI misuse at schools and universities OpenAI, the developer the 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.

ChatGPT to Help Students Learn, Not Just Complete Homework | AIM

While many call it a step in the right direction, there are also several shortcomings with the product. OpenAI, on July 29, launched 'Study Mode', a new feature on ChatGPT. It interactively guides students and learners through their questions, helping them understand and engage rather than simply giving answers. This follows Google's launch of study features in AI mode, where users can create study plans and organise information across multiple sessions to keep track of all the material being studied. The Study Mode feature on ChatGPT is available for all users - Free, Plus, Pro, and Team - with availability in ChatGPT Edu coming in the next few weeks. "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," said OpenAI in a blog post. The company stated the feature was developed in consultation with teachers, scientists, and education experts to promote deeper learning. The Study Mode currently offers personalised experiences, quizzes, open-ended questions, and step-by-step instructions to help students understand a concept. However, OpenAI said that it is working on features that provide visualisations for concepts, goal-setting and progress tracking tools. OpenAI has embedded instructions into ChatGPT to guide its behaviour as a tutor. Simon Willison, co-creator of the Django web framework, managed to extract the system prompt-the instructions set to the AI model to behave in a specific way, revealing details of its inner workings. The feature is designed to ask users preliminary questions about their background, ensure that the user is truly learning concepts by offering quick summaries, mnemonics, or mini-reviews, and mix activities, questions, and explanations so that it feels like a conversation, and much less than a lecture. Wilson expressed fascination with how AI labs such as OpenAI and Anthropic leverage system prompts. He noted that they use careful prompt engineering to introduce entirely new features to their platforms. While many expressed positive views of the feature, some also highlighted shortcomings. One user noted that the lack of dedicated 'purpose-built' user interface elements for quizzes, flashcards, and structured syllabi is a significant drawback. Dominik Lukes, an AI expert affiliated with the University of Oxford, observed that the tool fails to effectively assess the user's prior knowledge. He commented that it tends to ask only superficial questions and not enough of them. "It is just a wall of text - the cognitive load just increases as it goes on - it should really encourage the students to speak instead of type," he added. If you're eager to learn, OpenAI's Study Mode can help, but a better model with more effective teaching exchanges in its data would be ideal, said Lukes. Another user on X noted that ChatGPT struggles to recommend optimal questions for students due to limited data on their context, skills, and courseware, though it's a step in the right direction. Similarly, Sal Khan, founder of Khan Academy, emphasised in a podcast a few months ago that the primary challenge for AI in education isn't addressing resource shortages or technological gaps. Instead, he argued that AI's real test lies in fostering genuine curiosity and sustained interest among students. OpenAI will now compete with Learn About, one of Google's products released last year. The latter features a more dynamic user interface with interactive guides, quizzes, and additional visual information to enhance learning. However, one needs to join a waitlist to access Google's Learn About tool. OpenAI's new ChatGPT feature remains a general-purpose tool. This launch, however, raises the question of whether it's the start of the end for AI-focused ed-tech startups. However, missing features still offer opportunities for these startups. According to Xikun Zhang, a research scientist at OpenAI, general agents like these are not optimal yet. "And even if frontier general agent labs wanted to build optimised agents for [multiple] verticals, those initiatives were often harder to justify for AGI-focused companies," Zhang said. He emphasised that since the 'G' in 'AGI' represents 'general,' leading technology companies will likely continue prioritising the development of broad, general-purpose capabilities over specialised tools. Meanwhile, Abhigyan Arya, the co-founder of Opennote, a Y-Combinator-backed ed-tech startup, highlighted something similar. "Education is the prime frontier for AI, but no lab understands what students need. Plain text chatting doesn't help anyone, interactivity does," Arya said in a post on X.

ChatGPT gets a study buddy mode

OpenAI has launched Study Mode in ChatGPT, a new feature designed to cultivate critical thinking skills in students. Instead of directly providing answers, Study Mode engages users with questions and challenges them to interact with the material before offering assistance. The rollout of Study Mode commenced Tuesday for logged-in users across various ChatGPT subscription tiers, including Free, Plus, Pro, and Team plans. OpenAI anticipates extending Study Mode to its Edu subscribers in the coming weeks. Edu subscriptions primarily cater to younger users within educational institutions where administrators have procured ChatGPT access for the entire student body. Study Mode represents OpenAI's response to the extensive use of ChatGPT within academic environments. While research indicates that ChatGPT can serve as a beneficial educational tool, concerns have arisen regarding its potential impact on critical thinking abilities. A research paper published in June revealed diminished brain activity among individuals employing ChatGPT for essay composition compared to those utilizing Google Search or refraining from technological assistance. The initial release of ChatGPT in 2022 triggered apprehension among educators due to its widespread adoption in schools. This led to the implementation of generative AI bans across numerous school districts in the United States. During 2023, some of these institutions reversed their policies, acknowledging the integration of ChatGPT into students' lives. With the introduction of Study Mode, OpenAI aims to transform ChatGPT into an enhanced learning resource, shifting its primary function from a straightforward answer-providing system. In April, Anthropic released a comparable feature, known as Learning Mode, for its AI chatbot, Claude. The effectiveness of Study Mode is subject to certain limitations. Students retain the ability to revert to the standard ChatGPT mode, enabling them to obtain immediate answers to their inquiries. OpenAI's VP of Education, Leah Belsky, stated in a TechCrunch briefing that the company currently refrains from providing tools that would permit parents or administrators to enforce the use of Study Mode. Belsky indicated, however, that OpenAI might consider administrative or parental control features in the future. Successful implementation of Study Mode relies on the user's commitment to learning, requiring students to actively engage with the material rather than merely seeking task completion. As Belsky articulated, "That means it will take a committed student to use Study Mode -- the kids have to really want to learn, not just finish their assignment." OpenAI has emphasized that Study Mode is the initial step in refining ChatGPT as a learning platform. The company intends to disseminate further information regarding student utilization of generative AI in their education.

I Tried ChatGPT's New Study Mode and It Genuinely Makes Studying Easier

I Tried ChatGPT and Copilot's Deep Research Features, and This Is the Best Option Many students use AI to cheat or shortcut their way through study sessions -- I've definitely been guilty of both. I've done both. But with ChatGPT's study mode, I'm pushed to work through problems on my own, and surprisingly, I don't hate it. What ChatGPT's Study Mode Brings AI aimed at students really captured attention when Google's NotebookLM moved from trial to mainstream. It set the bar for interactive learning tools by letting users upload their own sources and get answers from their notes. OpenAI saw the opportunity and answered with ChatGPT's study mode. Unlike ChatGPT's usual "answer-first" style, study mode steers you through bite‑sized, Socratic steps designed to spark your own reasoning instead of blasting you with solutions. You type a question, and rather than a full explanation, it fires back smaller prompts that gradually nudge you toward the answer. No more walls of text. Related Google's AI Notebook Makes Podcasts From Your Notes -- and They're Unbelievably Good With NotebookLM's Audio Overview, your notes come to life as engaging conversations between AI hosts. Posts Here's an example. I've asked ChatGPT for help on a pharmacotherapy question. The two models had very different responses. The standard model dove straight into a dense explanation, while study mode led me through targeted questions until I could articulate the solution myself. Even though I already knew the answer, study mode felt more like a live tutor -- honestly better than many of my professors. Here's another example where I ask it for the answer to a problem. Note that this time, I asked for the answer, not for help. The original model just dumps the full solution in one go, but study mode slows things down and walks you through it step by step. Study node launched on July 29, 2025 and is accessible to all logged‑in ChatGPT users -- Free, Plus, Pro, Team -- with Edu access rolling out shortly Study Mode Is Only Good for Material That Needs Thinking ChatGPT's study mode uses a Socratic approach, but not everything benefits from this approach. Memorization‑heavy topics don't respond to guided questioning. For instance, I always mess up the Insulin brand names. If I ask ChatGPT's study mode for help, it's not going to do much. That's because to answer this question, I simply need to know the answer. No amount of thought will help. The only clue ChatGPT could give me here was the answer, as it basically did with its second response. Related AI Turned Me Into a Straight-A Student -- Here's My Strategy My lectures go in, flashcards and summaries come out. Thanks, AI. Posts Study Mode Tries to Teach You to Fish By design, ChatGPT's study mode will refuse to give you the answer directly. Or at least, it won't do it right away. Take the same conversation as before. I told it I just wanted the answers because I didn't have time. ChatGPT responded, very apologetically, that it couldn't do that since we were in study mode. But then it moved on to the next step anyway, wrapping things up with a basic unit conversion question and promising to reveal the answer if I played along. Feeling stubborn, I told it again: I don't want to think, just give me the answer. ChatGPT doubled down, saying it couldn't give me the answer because we were in study mode -- study mode bolded, almost as if it was begging me to turn it off and get on with it. But here's the funny part: I didn't even need to switch modes. Despite its warnings, if I scrolled down, the final answer was sitting right there in a nice, boxed highlight. It feels like study mode is OpenAI's answer to teachers worried about students using ChatGPT to skip the actual work. To its credit, study mode is much more engaging than the default. But it mostly helps students who already want to learn. If someone just wants the answer, study mode doesn't really stop them. ChatGPT's Study Mode Does What It's Supposed To To me, study mode feels more like a patch than a true upgrade. What I actually love about ChatGPT's Deep Research mode is that it asks for context and more information up front. When I give it a task, it pushes back with clarifying questions. Once I answer those, it gets to work, and usually nails it on the first try, instead of guessing and getting it wrong. In a way, study mode brings that back-and-forth dynamic to the regular models. The model pauses, waits for your response, and only then continues. That makes the exchange feel more interactive, and often a lot more productive. But, where Deep Research brought new capabilities, the new study mode feels more like a custom GPT. Related I Tried ChatGPT and Copilot's Deep Research Features, and This Is the Best Option Using AI to complete deep research saves a lot of time, and there are multiple ways to do it. Posts Regardless, I like this approach and plan to use it for the coming semester -- and probably for plenty of topics outside my main field, too. Still, I doubt it's going to win over many educators or teachers.

ChatGPT's New Study Mode Trains Your Brain Instead of Handing Over Answers

I Turned "Shelf Help" Theory Into Self Help Action With ChatGPT ChatGPT is a great tool for studying, but it usually gives answers on a silver platter. If you're worried it's dulling your brain, there's a new study mode that helps you think your way through the problem. ChatGPT Won't Hand Out Answers on a Platter Anymore OpenAI has announced a dedicated Study and Learn mode in ChatGPT. This mode is powered by "custom system instructions" written in collaboration with teachers, scientists, and pedagogy experts. This means that instead of solving a problem for you, ChatGPT will now walk you step by step through the solution and explain any concepts needed to solve the problem along the way. As long as you're using this mode, responses from ChatGPT will be organized in easy-to-follow sections that "highlight key connections between topics," in OpenAI's words. In fact, the chatbot will outright refuse to give you the full answer, insisting that you work through the problem instead. I tried ChatGPT's study mode with a simple integration problem, and it immediately asked if I recognized the function from the problem. When asked for the solution, the chatbot responded with "Nice try -- but since we're in Study Mode, I can't just hand it over." ChatGPT will give you just enough information to help you understand what's going on without overwhelming you with the entire solution. Lessons are also tailored to your level, which ChatGPT will work out based on questions that assess skill level and memory from older chats. If you haven't used ChatGPT for study before, chances are it's going to take some time before it can accurately recognize your skill level. However, it starts off with the basics if it doesn't have enough data to accurately map your skill level, so you'll be good to go in most cases. That said, Study and Learn can simply be toggled off at any point in the conversation to go back to the regular ChatGPT experience. This means that how much you learn depends on your patience and self-discipline. The new mode isn't perfect either, and sometimes results in consistent behavior and mistakes across conversations, especially when it comes to estimating your skill level. I also found that you can trick the chatbot into giving up the answer to a problem faster by just refusing to understand the questions it's asking. Eventually, ChatGPT will end up solving the problem for you, except with a far more detailed breakdown and easier-to-follow steps. Learning With AI Is Constantly Getting Better OpenAI claims that this mode is a first step to improving how ChatGPT is used for learning. Additional functionality like clearer visualizations for complex or text-heavy concepts, goal setting and progress tracking, as well as better personalization according to your skill level and goals, is on the cards. There's a good chance that this feature is going to get better in the future. The company also plans on training this new behavior directly into its main models once it has learned "what works best through iteration and student feedback." This could mean that ChatGPT can start exhibiting the behavior used in the Study and Learn mode in general, forcing you to learn your way through a problem. ChatGPT's Study and Learn mode is available to users with an OpenAI account on the Free, Plus, Pro, and Team subscriptions. Edu accounts should also start seeing the feature in the coming weeks. There are tricks to make ChatGPT more useful, but this feature can be a really handy tool to help students learn at their own pace.

ChatGPT's New Study Mode Will Guide Students Towards Solutions

OpenAI added a new study mode to its artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot, ChatGPT, on Tuesday. This new mode is designed to assist students with their homework, test preparation, and learning new topics, without providing answers upfront. Available to all logged-in users, the new feature utilises several learning frameworks to break down problems, encourage students to come up with solutions, and guide them in the right direction. Interestingly, the new feature comes just weeks after Google released a custom version of its chatbot dubbed Gemini for Education. In a post, the San Francisco-based AI firm announced the rollout of study mode in ChatGPT. It will be available to the logged-in users on the free, Plus, Pro, and Team tiers. The company plans to make the feature available in the ChatGPT Edu tier in the next few weeks. OpenAI describes the study mode as a learning experience where the chatbot helps users work through the problems step by step. This new mode can be found in ChatGPT's Tools menu, which also features Canvas and Deep Research. Here, a new "Study and learn" option can be seen. Selecting this will enable the study mode, and the AI will stop providing direct answers to questions and instead engage the user to come up with the solution. OpenAI says that the new tool is powered by custom system instructions written by the company's developers. These instructions were created in collaboration with teachers, scientists, and pedagogy experts, and are designed to encourage active participation, develop metacognition and self-reflection, and build curiosity. Study mode uses interactive prompts based on the principle of Socratic questioning, breaks down information into shorter sections, offers lessons based on the skill level and the grade of the user, and uses quizzes and open-ended questions to analyse the user's progress. To toggle the study mode on and off, users just need to tap on the option. With the study mode, OpenAI is finally responding to the ongoing discussions about the usage of AI among students and how it can negatively impact their ability to learn and develop important skills. However, this new mode does not come with any parental control or account locking system, which means that if students just prefer to get the answer from ChatGPT, there is no mechanism to prevent it.

OpenAI launches ChatGPT 'study mode'; partners with edtechs in India, US - The Economic Times

ChatGPT is widely used by students, and OpenAI is partnering with ed-tech startups in India and the US to build educational tools using its APIs. AI is becoming core infrastructure, serving as a personal tutor and helping bridge educational gaps, especially in countries like India, said OpenAI's education VP.ChatGPT is one of the popular tools with students, and OpenAI is working with ed-tech startups in India and the US to enable development of education products on top of ChatGPT through its APIs, a top executive said. AI is becoming a core infrastructure like the internet, reshaping how we team and run operations, and for students, it serves as a personal tutor. This can close the gap between those who have access to learning resources and those who have been historically left behind, which is relevant to markets such as India, Leah Belsky, vice president-education, OpenAI said while speaking to select Indian media. On Tuesday, OpenAI launched a study mode. The company claims its "a learning companion" that guides students with the process instead of giving quick answers, as it is one of the major use cases for ChatGPT emerging from the student community, said a top executive. OpenAI worked with education experts and institutions for developing this model. With study mode, OpenAI could be competing with ed-tech startups in the country. Belsky said that the study mode was tested on to IIT and other competitive exams across India to assess the performance, which was the key objective. The company is also doubling down on partnerships and collaborations with the education ecosystem in India. The launch comes after OpenAI's interaction with the students and the academic community in the country over a few weeks, where the team learnt that students wanted a tutor that would guide them. Belsky said that the feature will be available in 11 Indian languages with multimodal support and is tested by Indian students across a range of scenarios from learning to exam preparation. "Early testing shows strong performance, particularly on IIT level questions." Belsky said.

ChatGPT gets Study Mode with step-by-step explanations

OpenAI has rolled out a new 'Study Mode' in ChatGPT -- designed to help students work through questions and concepts step by step, rather than just getting instant answers. This interactive learning experience aims to support deeper understanding and engagement across a wide range of subjects. Study Mode is an optional feature in ChatGPT that uses guiding questions and adaptive feedback to help students think critically and learn more effectively. It encourages users to learn something, not just complete something, through a mix of questioning techniques and self-reflection prompts. The feature is powered by custom system instructions developed with input from teachers, scientists, and learning experts. These instructions reflect research-backed principles designed to: These behaviors are informed by decades of research in learning science and are embedded into how ChatGPT interacts with learners using Study Mode. To use it, select "Study and learn" from the tools in ChatGPT and ask your question. OpenAI describes this release as an initial step in evolving ChatGPT as a true learning companion. Currently, Study Mode is powered by handcrafted system instructions, which allows fast iteration but may occasionally lead to inconsistent responses. Looking ahead, OpenAI plans to: OpenAI is also collaborating with experts -- including Stanford University's SCALE Initiative -- as part of its NextGenAI program to research how AI impacts learning outcomes in areas like K-12 education. From July 29, 2025, logged-in users across Free, Plus, Pro, and Team tiers can access Study Mode. It will be rolled out to ChatGPT Edu users in the coming weeks.

OpenAI Introduces ChatGPT Study Mode to Boost Student Learning

AI Meets Education: ChatGPT Study Mode Encourages Deep Learning and Dialogue Over Instant Information Retrieval OpenAI has launched a new feature, ChatGPT Study Mode, designed to promote students' critical thinking rather than passive information consumption. In a blog post published Tuesday, the company said all logged-in users of the Free, Plus, Pro, and Team plans can use it starting today. The company has confirmed that ChatGPT Edu subscribers will soon receive access. This new feature is part of a broader effort to reshape how functions in modern classrooms.

Study mode in ChatGPT explained: How students can use AI more effectively

Students can now upload problems, get hints, and practice smarter using ChatGPT OpenAI's new "Study Mode" for ChatGPT, launched on July 29, 2025, marks a major shift in how generative AI interacts with students. Instead of simply providing fast answers, the tool now encourages deeper engagement by asking questions, offering hints, and guiding users through the learning process step by step. With this update, ChatGPT moves from being a quick fix for homework to becoming a personalized tutor that nudges students toward real understanding. It's a deliberate move, and one that comes amid growing concerns about how students are using AI too often, simply to cut corners. Here's how it works, and why it might matter more than you think. Also read: OpenAI adds study mode to ChatGPT: How it works, features and other details Study Mode changes the tone and tempo of ChatGPT responses. When enabled, the chatbot avoids direct answers at first. Instead, it uses a Socratic approach: asking leading questions, encouraging reflection, and offering feedback based on how the student responds. Whether you're tackling a math problem, analyzing a poem, or preparing for a science exam, Study Mode aims to slow you down constructively. You might upload a scanned worksheet or paste in a question from your textbook. Instead of immediately solving it, ChatGPT might say: "Let's think this through together. What's the first thing you notice about the equation?" Or for a literature question: "What do you think the author is suggesting in this passage? Can you find any key phrases?" The idea is to build habits of thinking, not just harvesting information. Study Mode leverages ChatGPT's memory feature (available to Plus and Pro users) to adapt responses based on your learning style, previous questions, and recurring challenges. If it notices you struggle with geometry proofs but breeze through algebra, it might ramp up the challenge in one area while offering lighter support elsewhere. Also read: ChatGPT 5 coming in August: Just how good is it? It also offers quizzes, summary prompts, and structured sections that build on prior interactions. This turns ChatGPT into more than a chatbot, it becomes a dynamic study companion that tracks progress across time. Importantly, Study Mode is available even to free users. It's turned on by default in the new educational interface and can be toggled off, though educators might want to encourage keeping it on. OpenAI says Study Mode was developed with input from teachers, curriculum designers, and researchers, including experts from Stanford and over 40 other institutions. The result is a tool that understands pedagogical balance: not just explaining the "what," but guiding toward the "why" and "how." That's a significant improvement over how students have often used ChatGPT until now. Studies - including one from MIT - suggest that while AI boosts productivity, it can also promote "metacognitive laziness" if used passively. Study Mode aims to counter that. Of course, no system is foolproof. Study Mode can be turned off with a single toggle, returning ChatGPT to its default, answer-giving behavior. There's also the ongoing issue of AI hallucinations, cases where ChatGPT confidently gives false or misleading information. While the new mode doesn't eliminate these risks, it reduces the likelihood of blind copying by engaging the user in the process. Critics argue that it's still too easy to treat ChatGPT as a shortcut rather than a tool. And in an educational system still struggling with how to assess students fairly in the AI age, that tension remains unresolved. The launch of Study Mode reflects a growing trend in AI: tools are beginning to take responsibility for how they're used. Just as Google's AI Mode now offers persistent "Canvas" workspaces and live video search to support students (instead of just indexing the web), OpenAI is trying to push users toward more meaningful engagement. This isn't just an update, it's a statement. Study Mode tells students: We're not here to do your homework. We're here to help you understand it. So, how can students use it effectively? Keep Study Mode on, resist the temptation to switch back to direct answers. The long-term gain is worth it. Use it early in your study process, don't wait till the night before the exam. Use it to understand, not just revise. Ask it to quiz you, Study Mode supports short quizzes and can tailor them based on past struggles. The multimodal capabilities (for Pro users) let you paste in handwritten work, graphs, or photos and you can ask for "explain like I'm five" answers if something doesn't make sense. Study Mode is not a silver bullet, and it won't fix the structural challenges of AI in education. But it is a step in the right direction toward AI that teaches, rather than just tells. If students use it wisely, Study Mode could become one of the most powerful learning tools of their academic lives. Not because it knows everything, but because it helps you know more.