OpenAI wants teachers and profs to foist their work off on ChatGPT

OpenAI has introduced a series of new education-focused tools to encourage teachers and students to rely more heavily on ChatGPT. The company announced these offerings on Tuesday, including a plugin for K-12 teachers, one for college educators, and another for college students. These tools aim to help users leverage ChatGPT's "agentic capabilities" for studying and teaching purposes.

The new features are part of ChatGPT Edu, an institutionally licensed suite for higher education, and ChatGPT for Teachers, a free resource for verified US K-12 educators. According to OpenAI, these tools align with their educational AI philosophy that "AI should support learning, not shortcut it, and the best learning experiences keep educators and students in control."

However, concerns about AI-enabled cheating and research suggesting its products hinder learning have raised doubts about the effectiveness of these new offerings. A study from the Center for Democracy and Technology found that K-12 teachers are often not provided with the necessary resources to integrate AI into their schools or to address potential harms to students' learning and personal development.

OpenAI's new tools may simply allow teachers to offload more work to ChatGPT, rather than helping them maintain control over the academic process or understand the impact of AI on their students.

MIT researchers recently conducted a study where students' brain activity was monitored while writing essays, with some allowed to use the internet and others to use AI. The results showed that the AI cohort had less brain activity, suggesting that relying on AI for learning may not lead to better outcomes. Critics argue that overreliance on AI tools like ChatGPT can undermine deeper learning and that real learning still requires effort.

The question remains: why would teachers and professors embrace an expansion of AI in their workflow when they've witnessed its negative effects on students?