OpenAI will roll out a brand-new ChatGPT dedicated to universities and college campuses amid growing concerns about the technology's impact on academic ethics and integrity.
In a blog post on Thursday, OpenAI introduced the ChatGPT Edu, a new GPT model "designed for schools that want to deploy AI more broadly to students and their campus communities."
The AI assistant is touted to be capable of completing personalized tasks, such as tutoring students, helping solve math equations, analyzing data sets, and writing application grants.
ChatGPT Edu is built from the recently released GPT-4o model, OpenAI's latest flagship project for a "much more natural human-computer interaction."
The rollout of the academic-oriented chatbot follows after OpenAI secured several deals with state universities to test out its technology in the academic field.
AI Application on Academics Remain a Hard Subject Amid Ethical Concerns
While the academic field has long explored studies on AI, the actual application of technology in the academic process remains a contentious subject among many scholars and institutions.
Many institutions still consider AI use as an act of academic dishonesty and misconduct, the same level as plagiarizing a work.
OpenAI has been accused several times of plagiarism and breaching licensed intellectual rights as AI models are often built from other people's published works and the content.
A CNN report even highlighted ethical considerations in using AI to teach others and write dissertations and master's theses that future researchers will use.
Since the surge in AI tools, many schools in the US and the world have since implemented strict policies against students using AI tools like ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot with academic penalties.
More Universities, School Start to Lean Towards AI
Despite prevalent concerns about the technology, chatbots like ChatGPT continue to gain popularity in many schools where its use might not be an issue.
Several business schools earlier reported that many of their students have started using chatbots in their studies as the tool became more popular in the tech industry.
Universities like Arizona State have also started collaborating with OpenAI for its faculty and to integrate AI into their lesson plans.
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