ChatGPT's Tool for Students Is Great in Theory, Wobbly in Practice

Study Mode aims to make students learn, not cheat, but many are already too used to taking shortcuts.

- Sandra Davie

Amid rising concerns on the use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools by students, ChatGPT has launched a Study Mode option to encourage responsible academic use of the chatbot.

When a student selects the new mode and poses a question, the bot becomes a tutor and explains each step of the solution instead of jumping directly to the final answer.

For example, when students ask for help with Bayes' theorem, a mathematical formula, the bot asks what level of maths they are comfortable with and what their goal is before initiating a gradual learning process.

Study Mode is being released as universities around the world grapple with the issue of AI misuse among their students.

In Singapore, the debate became heated in June after Nanyang Technological University decided to award three students zero marks for an assignment after discovering they had used generative AI tools in their work.

WILL IT HARM OR HELP?

Besides the issue of academic misuse and whether AI helps or hinders learning, emerging research has also raised concerns on AI's impact on kids' brains.

One study released in June by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology compared students who were asked to use ChatGPT to write SAT essays with those who wrote them with no tools and those who wrote them with the help of Google.

They found that the students who used ChatGPT had lower brain engagement and "consistently underperformed at neural, linguistic and behavioural levels".

US media reports have pointed out that the release of Study Mode at the start of the new academic year is part of a wider push by OpenAI to get AI more embedded into classrooms.

When asked why the company decided to develop Study Mode, OpenAI's head of education Leah Belsky told The Straits Times that students are already using ChatGPT every day to help them learn, with one in three college students in the US relying on it regularly.