Inside OpenAI’s push to send ChatGPT to college

OpenAI is increasingly approaching universities with the goal of securing deals that embed its AI tools in every facet of campus life, according to a new NY Times report.

If the company’s strategy succeeds:

• Students would receive personalized AI assistants to help guide and tutor them from orientation day through graduation.
• Professors would provide customized AI study bots for each class (with the ability for voice mode to be turned on for more conversational learning).
• Career services would offer recruiter chatbots that allow students to practice job interviews.

In its sales pitch to create “AI-native universities,” OpenAI points to research from Microsoft that indicates 71% of leaders would rather hire someone less experienced, but with AI skills, than someone more experienced but without AI skills.

Some schools are embracing the push…including Maryland, Duke, and Cal State University, which announced earlier this year that it’ll make ChatGPT available to each of its 460,000+ students to help prepare them for “California’s future AI-driven economy.”

…while others look more like this: 🙅‍♀️. Among other things, AI detractors point to hallucinations that can be harmful for learning, as well as early research that indicates outsourcing certain tasks to chatbots can diminish skills like critical thinking.

Not just OpenAI: The push to send chatbots to college is getting more competitive than intramural flag football. In a bid to draw more student users, Google and xAI, Elon Musk’s AI startup, are also offering their respective premium AI services for free to college students during exams.