Will private tutors be replaced? OpenAI launches ChatGPT learning mode: it can guide rather than directly give answers.

Early in the morning of July 30th, artificial intelligence company OpenAI announced the launch of the ChatGPT Study mode, offering students a free 24 - hour AI tutor. Different from the past, ChatGPT Study can help students solve problems step - by - step instead of directly giving answers.

Starting from July 30th, all Free, Plus, Pro, and Team users can experience the functions of the study mode. Meanwhile, ChatGPT Edu users will also get this function within the next few weeks.

Five major functions of ChatGPT Study mode:

1. Interactive prompts: By combining Socratic questioning, prompts, and self - reflection questions, the aim is to guide students to think actively and understand, rather than simply providing answers;
2. Progressive feedback: Decompose information into smaller, more digestible parts to highlight the key connections between topics, thereby reducing the risk of information overload and making the learning process both interesting and challenging;
3. Personalized support: Tailor personalized course content according to the questions raised by students, the memory from previous conversations, and the user's skill level;
4. Knowledge check: To help students track their learning progress, quizzes and open - ended questions are added to the study mode. The system will provide feedback based on students' answers and progress to help them consolidate their memory and encourage them to apply what they have learned to new situations;
5. Flexibility: The study mode can be flexibly enabled or disabled according to students' specific needs. Students can adjust their learning methods at any time according to different learning goals.

Leah Belsky, the vice - president of OpenAI's education business, said, "We want to understand how students use ChatGPT and how we can make it a better educational tool. Early research shows that the way ChatGPT is used affects learning outcomes. When ChatGPT is used for teaching or tutoring, it can significantly improve academic performance. But if it is only used as an answer - giving machine, it may hinder learning."

The study mode solves a fundamental problem that has emerged since ChatGPT became popular among students. Currently, about one - third of young Americans use this AI tool, and learning has become its main use. However, educators have been arguing about whether this tool can enhance understanding or encourage academic shortcuts.

How the study mode is built

Behind the scenes, ChatGPT's study mode is driven by custom system instructions jointly designed by OpenAI, teachers, scientists, and pedagogy experts. These instructions reflect a series of core behaviors aimed at promoting deeper learning among students, including: encouraging active participation, managing cognitive load, actively cultivating self - reflection and metacognition, stimulating curiosity, and providing practical and supportive feedback.

All these behaviors are based on long - term learning science research, aiming to shape how the study mode responds to students' questions through this research, ensuring that students can continuously deepen their understanding and thinking during the learning process.

Robbie Torney, the senior director of the artificial intelligence project at Common Sense Media, said, "The study mode is not equivalent to doing homework directly. It focuses more on encouraging students to think critically about their learning methods. This function is a significant step forward in the positive application of AI in the education field. Even in the AI era, the most effective learning still stems from students' interest in and active participation in the course content."

Actual test report: More like a learning partner than a tool

Two college students who were early testers of the study mode provided evidence of how this tool affected their learning confidence and results.

Maggie Wang (transliteration), a senior computer science major at Princeton University, told how this tool helped her finally understand the concept of sinusoidal position encoding. Although she had taken a natural language processing course and received professional consultation, she had been confused about this concept before.

She said, "I really think there is nothing I can't learn. The study mode gave me a sense of confidence and completely changed my experience as a student. ChatGPT allows me to think critically about my role as a researcher, read papers, and think about research directions."

Praja Tickoo, an economics student at the Wharton School, also mentioned that when reviewing accounting materials, the difference between the study mode and regular ChatGPT was obvious: "It feels like it knows where to start... It ensures that I'm ready to move on at every step. Regular ChatGPT gives me the feeling of a tool, while ChatGPT in the study mode is more like a learning partner."

Disrupting the $80 - billion education technology market

OpenAI's learning function fundamentally changes the way students interact with AI, representing a major move by OpenAI into the education technology market. Analysts predict that by 2030, the size of this market will reach $80.5 billion.

As the application of AI in the education field progresses, the competition is becoming increasingly fierce. Recently, Anthropic launched Claude for Education, which is similar to OpenAI's study mode. It also encourages students to think and reflect on themselves through Socratic questioning instead of directly giving answers. In addition, Google is also testing "Guided Learning for Gemini" and offering students a free subscription to its $20 Gemini AI Pro service.

This competitive landscape shows the huge potential of AI technology in the education market, which is both a large business opportunity and a stage to demonstrate the application of AI in terms of social benefits. Different from consumer - oriented applications that focus on convenience, educational AI tools must find a balance between accessibility and teaching principles to truly promote learning.

OpenAI mentioned in the announcement, "The research field on how to best apply AI in education is still evolving." This means that the study mode is currently just a preliminary experiment, not a final solution.

OpenAI developed custom system instructions for the study mode instead of directly embedding these behaviors into the underlying model. This approach allows the company to iterate quickly based on students' feedback, although it may lead to inconsistent behaviors in conversations. OpenAI plans to integrate these behaviors directly into the main model after collecting enough usage data.

In the future, OpenAI also plans to enhance the functions of the study mode, including providing clearer visualizations for complex concepts, setting goals and tracking progress across conversations, and further deepening personalized support. With the launch of ChatGPT Edu, these new functions will help improve students' learning experience and results.

Exploring future functions to enhance the study mode experience

To make the study mode more attractive to students and provide more powerful help during the learning process, OpenAI is exploring a series of new functions.

1. Clearer visualizations: When learning complex or text - based concepts, pure text explanations are often difficult to understand. Therefore, OpenAI plans to provide more intuitive visualizations for complex concepts;
2. Goal setting and progress tracking: To help students stay focused and achieve self - driven learning, OpenAI plans to add goal - setting and progress - tracking functions across conversations to the study mode;
3. Deeper personalized support: OpenAI is working hard to make the study mode more personalized, providing customized support based on students' skill levels, learning styles, and specific goals.

Is it a compromise choice by OpenAI?

OpenAI emphasized that the study mode represents "the first step in improving ChatGPT's learning function." The company is collaborating with the SCALE Initiative at Stanford University to conduct long - term research on how students can learn most effectively through AI and plans to publish research results on the relationship between model design and cognitive outcomes.

For educational institutions, the study mode provides a middle - ground approach, avoiding both the complete prohibition of AI tool use and the unrestricted allowance of AI intervention in teaching. By directly integrating pedagogical principles into the AI interface, OpenAI has created a tool that can address educators' concerns about learning integrity while helping students get AI tutoring.

As Caleb Masi from the University of Minnesota said, "We've only just scratched the surface of what AI tools can do to support students. The more thoughtfully we use these tools, the stronger we, as a community, will become, not just as students but as lifelong learners."

The ultimate test will not only be whether AI can provide the right answers but also whether it can teach students to ask better questions, thereby inspiring deeper thinking and broader learning exploration.

Netizens' responses

Regarding the new learning function launched by OpenAI, netizens have said that it is a significant step towards personalized learning.

Derya Unutmaz, a world - top immunology expert followed by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, also posted a response to a post by OpenAI President Greg Brockman, praising:

I just tested the ChatGPT study mode and was really shocked! It turns every question into a guided lesson. Education is developing at the speed of light!

A netizen wrote:

After trying OpenAI's study mode, to be honest, it feels like having a wise private tutor in my pocket.

For those who can't easily access high - quality education or private tutoring, this could be a life - changing tool.

It's not just about answering questions - it teaches you how to think, reflect, and grow. It feels like giving wings to human creativity.

This itself is deeply in line with OpenAI's mission.

I've even imagined a version where learners can adjust the difficulty themselves - choosing to take on challenges or seek comfort.

Another netizen said:

Today, I saw the glimmer of the real potential of AI.

OpenAI's "study mode" is an important step towards achieving educational accessibility - making education accessible anytime, anywhere.

If you could choose to learn anything next, with an AI coach by your side, what would you choose?

Yet another netizen said:

OpenAI has launched the ChatGPT study mode - a new function that turns AI into a real tutor, not just an answer - giving machine. It won't directly give you solutions but will guide you step - by - step, ask helpful questions, adjust to your knowledge level, and correct you along the way. It can also create quizzes or test your understanding in different ways.

This mode was developed with the participation of real teachers, so it is designed to be both effective and educational. The best part? It's completely free and applicable to any ChatGPT model. For students, especially high - school students, this is a game - changer.

It seems that private tutors may finally be replaced.

However, some people have questioned the effectiveness of the study mode:

The study mode launched by OpenAI raises a key question: Can a reliable tutor be built just by adding a new conversation filter to a general large - language model? In fact, behind the study mode is still ChatGPT, and the training data comes from various information on the open web, including countless wonderful contents and wrong statements. This means that it may teach some concepts incorrectly as easily as it provides correct answers.

This approach prioritizes the "tutor - like" user experience but may ignore the accuracy of the data itself. In high - risk fields like education, the reliability of the model is far more important than the packaging of the user experience. It can be said that this is not just a product launch but also a vivid case reminding us that there is still a huge gap between the interactivity of artificial intelligence and the reliability of its application.

Another netizen worried:

ChatGPT's new study mode helps students learn, but it also raises concerns about cheating and the role of AI in education. Balancing innovation and academic integrity is the key.

This article is from "Tencent Technology", author: Jin Lu. Republished by 36Kr with permission.