ChatGPT launches AI study assistant. Can it challenge test-prep cos' dominance?

OpenAI, the world’s most prominent artificial intelligence startup, on Tuesday launched a ‘study mode’ on its ubiquitous generative AI chatbot, ChatGPT. With a focus on competitive examinations including India’s most popular ones such as engineering and medical entrance tests, the company agreed that ChatGPT’s study mode will likely overlap with India’s education-tech startups—thereby giving it access to a large, potentially monetizable base of students in the country.

Leah Belsky, vice president of education at OpenAI, said the company has used “some" questionnaires and study materials of competitive examinations such as the engineering entrance tests for the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) as part of preparing the student-centric study mode. “We also tested study mode on top core-curriculum examinations such as for India’s IITs, as well as other examinations across India, to assess its performance," Belsky said.

While OpenAI did not offer any specific benchmark or ranking figures for the study mode in reference to India’s education ecosystem—except that the mode “performs very, very well", Belsky added that the goal for the student-specific mode was to “create a general-purpose study assistant that works irrespective of universities and courses."

“We also collaborated with leading researchers and institutes across India while creating study mode, and we’ll be sharing the results of these evaluations soon," she said.

Kashyap Kompella, veteran AI analyst, trainer and founder of consultancy firm RPA2AI Research, said the study mode will have to handle India's language divide, but “the one key problem it can solve is India's lack of trained teachers at scale even at the last mile".

“Edtech startups digitized education about a decade ago, but per-student personalization remained out of their ambit. Modes like this on ChatGPT can accurately personalize education for students at scale, but concerns will remain on the possibility of misuse of these tools. The key trick will be too train and enable teachers to make the most of such AI tools—a 'teach mode', perhaps," he added.

Ed-tech firms specializing in test preparation for competitive examinations are likely to see increased competition as more AI companies launch similar assistants. 37-year-old test-prep firm Allen Career Institute, for instance, offers a similar preparation assistant ‘Allie’ through a proprietary software platform.

Still, it won't be a cakewalk for AI tools to replace human interface, which is immensely valued in a country like India, some experts said.

“It’s unlikely that such AI tools will take away substantial business from India’s education specialists, since their prowess lies in offering human oversight toward a student’s career preparation. Parents, especially from India’s middle-class, are unlikely to have students readily bank on ChatGPT to prepare for IITs. It can be an also-there option, but is unlikely to take over the market," a senior industry executive close to a top test-prep firm told Mint, requesting anonymity since they had not used ChatGPT’s study mode as yet.

Study mode can be accessed even on ChatGPT’s free tier, but will come with usage restrictions such as long response times in peak usage hours, and limited memory of conversations. But, for now, the company does not plan to introduce a student-specific pricing model. ChatGPT’s base subscription tier, ‘Plus’, costs ₹1,999 ($23) per month in India.

To be sure, OpenAI also has an education-specific ‘ChatGPT Edu’ for universities to adopt—which would give its students access to the platform for free, but at a group pricing for the institution itself. Study mode is separate from this.

OpenAI's announcement comes as Big Tech firms in Silicon Valley are on a lookout for ways to get consumers accustomed to AI. In May this year, Google launched a video-centric foundational AI model, Veo 3, designed to let any user create videos with text prompts. Plans for the service are priced onward of ₹1,950 ($22) per month in India.

Microsoft, meanwhile, is integrating its OpenAI-backed Copilot into all new Windows-powered laptops—also priced at ₹2,000 per month for a single person.

Jibu Elias, responsible computing lead for India at Mozilla Foundation, added that it is “to the best interests of Big Tech and the makers of AI to have more students and people in general becoming used to their AI ecosystems right from an early stage." This, Elias added, could be a key factor for companies seeking ways to rope in users into their AI ecosystems at an early stage—much like the consumer technology battle among companies through the first 15 years of 2000s.