OpenAI explores how to get ChatGPT into classrooms

Microsoft-backed start-up OpenAI, whose generative artificial intelligence (AI) products initially raised fears of widespread cheating on homework, is now exploring how it can get its popular ChatGPT application into classrooms, according to a senior executive.

OpenAI chief operating officer Brad Lightcap said at a conference in San Francisco that the company will form a team to explore educational applications of the technology, which has threatened to upend industries, stoked new legislation and become a popular learning tool.

“Most teachers are trying to figure out ways to incorporate (ChatGPT) into the curriculum and into the way they teach,” Lightcap said at the INSEAD Americas Conference last week. “We at OpenAI are trying to help them think through the problem and we probably next year will establish a team with the sole intent of doing that.”

Backed by billions of dollars from software giant Microsoft, OpenAI kicked off the generative AI craze last November by releasing its ChatGPT intelligent chatbot, which became one of the world’s fastest-growing applications.

Trained on reams of data, generative AI can create brand-new humanlike content, helping users spin up term papers, complete science homework and even write entire novels. After ChatGPT’s launch, regulators scrambled to catch up: the European Union revised its AI Act and the US kicked off AI regulation efforts.

The launch – in the middle of the school year – also caught teachers off guard when they realised it could be used as a cheating and plagiarism tool, which then sparked a backlash and school bans.

“Teachers thought it was the worst thing that had ever happened,” Lightcap said. But within a few months, teachers started seeing how ChatGPT could be beneficial, he said.