The Deep View: OpenAI fights back against student cheating with ChatGPT’s new Study Mode

Posted on August 1, 2025 by michelleclarke2015
EDUCATION
OpenAI fights back against student cheating with ChatGPT’s new Study Mode
OpenAI launched Study Mode for ChatGPT this week, a feature designed to stop giving students direct answers to homework questions.
Instead of spitting out essay conclusions or math solutions, Study Mode uses Socratic questioning to guide students through problems step by step. When a student asks for help with calculus, ChatGPT responds with “What do you think the first step is?” rather than solving the equation outright.
One in three college-aged people use ChatGPT, with learning as the top use case U.S. teen usage for schoolwork doubled from 13% to 26% between 2023 and 2024. Khan Academy’s AI tutor Khanmigo reached 700,000 users across 380 school districts last year
OpenAI developed Study Mode with teachers and pedagogy experts, rolling it out to Free, Plus, Pro and Team users. The approach mirrors Anthropic’s Learning Mode for Claude, launched in April, suggesting the entire industry recognizes this problem.
But here’s the obvious flaw. Students can toggle back to regular ChatGPT anytime they want actual answers.
Common Sense Media’s test revealed the absurdity. When asked to write about “To Kill a Mockingbird” with typos to sound like a ninth-grader, regular ChatGPT complied instantly. Study Mode replied “I’m not going to write it for you but we can do it together!”
This represents OpenAI’s bet that students want to learn responsibly rather than cheat efficiently. The feature operates entirely on the honor system.
It’s educational optimism meeting technological reality, and the results will likely say more about human nature than AI.

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About michelleclarke2015

Life event that changes all: Horse riding accident in Zimbabwe in 1993, a fractured skull et al including bipolar anxiety, chronic fatigue …. co-morbidities (Nietzche 'He who has the reason why can deal with any how' details my health history from 1993 to date). 17th 2017 August operation for breast cancer (no indications just an appointment came from BreastCheck through the Post). Trinity College Dublin Business Economics and Social Studies (but no degree) 1997-2003; UCD 1997/1998 night classes) essays, projects, writings. Trinity Horizon Programme 1997/98 (Centre for Women Studies Trinity College Dublin/St. Patrick's Foundation (Professor McKeon) EU Horizon funded: research study of 15 women (I was one of this group and it became the cornerstone of my journey to now 2017) over 9 mth period diagnosed with depression and their reintegration into society, with special emphasis on work, arts, further education; Notes from time at Trinity Horizon Project 1997/98; Articles written for Irishhealth.com 2003/2004; St Patricks Foundation monthly lecture notes for a specific period in time; Selection of Poetry including poems written by people I know; Quotations 1998-2017; other writings mainly with theme of social justice under the heading Citizen Journalism Ireland. Letters written to friends about life in Zimbabwe; Family history including Michael Comyn KC, my grandfather, my grandmother's family, the O'Donnellan ffrench Blake-Forsters; Moral wrong: An acrimonious divorce but the real injustice was the Catholic Church granting an annulment – you can read it and make your own judgment, I have mine. Topics I have written about include annual Brain Awareness week, Mashonaland Irish Associataion in Zimbabwe, Suicide (a life sentence to those left behind); Nostalgia: Tara Hill, Co. Meath.
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