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.
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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”.