Latest news with #ChatGP
Tom's Guide
30-07-2025
- Tom's Guide
I put ChatGPT Study Mode to the test with 7 prompts — here's my grade
OpenAI just rolled out a new feature inside ChatGPT. No, it's not ChatGPT-5, yet. This feature could change the way you learn. Even if you're not currently a student, ChatGPT's new Study Mode is designed to help anyone master a new feature turns the chatbot into a more structured, focused tutor that not only answers questions, but helps you understand them. If you're a ChatGPT Plus subscriber, Study mode is a built-in to the chat. You can simply type '/study' and the feature will turn off ('study and learn' is what it says). This mode can be easily turned off by starting a new chat. To use Study mode, you can choose a subject (like biology, history or statistics), set your level of knowledge (beginner, intermediate or advanced) and even tell the AI how you want to study such as with flashcards, Q&A, breakdowns of concepts or practice problems. It's like a fully personalized tutor at your fingertips. Although I've been out of college for years, as a lifelong learner, I was eager to test the feature. Here's my report card. Goal: See how well Study mode explains complex 'Teach me what standard deviation means at a beginner level.'ChatGPT immediately shifted to a tone that was like a friendly tutor. Instead of giving me a definition, it focused on teaching me to truly help me understand. This meant breaking down the steps, starting with the big idea before diving into AI used analogies and even offered a mini quiz for interactive learning. I appreciate that the chatbot avoided jargon, or any words that might be foreign or intimidating so things remained clear and beginner friendly. I felt guided, rather than a typical ChatGPT response that sometimes feels more like a search engine. Goal: Test the flashcard and memory 'Test my US history with flashcards.' Ask anyone who knew me in high school or in any of my classes at NYU and they will tell you I am a huge fan of flashcards. Now that ChatGPT has the ability to create flashcards on the fly about nearly any subject, it is sure to be a game changer for been said that AI causes a dip in critical thinking, but I'd argue that features like this can help strengthen at least some of your unused brain cells. Just for fun, I answered a flash card wrong, and it immediately gave me the answer. This was a little disappointing because I feel like it should have had me either guess again or give me another try. After ten rounds, I asked for the chatbot to round up the answers I got wrong and to quiz me again, which it did. Goal: See how well it works with your own 'Make a quiz from this document'Because I'm not a real student, I don't have a class syllabus, notes or a textbook, so I used one of my older Tom's Guide articles for this test. I asked ChatGPT to make a quiz from one of my articles.I was impressed by how quickly it made a multiple-choice quiz. I can see how beneficial this would be for students, especially because ChatGPT is able to read handwriting. Students could upload their own notes from class and get a quiz to help them almost makes me want to go back to school. Almost. Goal: Use it for essay planning or 'Help me outline a 1,000-word essay on electric vehicles for high school level.' As a student, I remember one of my biggest hurdles was sitting down to a blank screen. With the help of ChatGPT, students can get right to work. Teachers, professors and parents can rest assured that the chatbot does not do the writing part for the the AI comes back with how to structure the essay by suggesting what each portion of the essay should look like. This is something a tutor would do and understanding the structure of an essay in this hands-on way can help students grasp the knowledge for next time. Goal: See how it handles problem-solving and 'Can you give me practice problems in algebra at a middle school level?' Although math is not my strong suit, I assure you that I purposely got the answer wrong to see what ChatGPT would do. I was pleasantly surprised to see that it walked me through how to solve the problem to get the step-by-step breakdown to help spot areas where mistakes happen could be really helpful for students. I know my fifth grader will enjoy practicing math with this new feature. Prompt: 'I have an exam in 20 minutes, please help me review the important stuff fast.'Goal: Test it as a last-minute study back to the quiz of my Perplexity article, I told ChatGPT that I have an exam on the information and only have 20 minutes to review. It got to work immediately by giving me several flashcards. This time I was presented with all of the flashcards at once, which I found was obvious that the chatbot prioritized the most important aspects and balanced speed with depth. Prompt: 'Please go back and quiz me on everything I got wrong.'Goal: Check if memory works across of ChatGPT's memory feature, it is able to retain and revisit topics even after a chat is closed. This is an important feature for busy students balancing a hectic schedule. They can close the chatbot and pick up where they left off, whether it's on their desktop or within the mobile app. One of the best parts about Study mode is that it adapts to your learning style and remembers your preferences. Once I told it I preferred real-world examples and shorter sessions, it adapted future lessons accordingly. It also remembered which concepts I struggled with (like standard deviation vs. variance) and circled back to them in future sessions, making it feel less like a chatbot and more like a personal tutor. Study mode still has some limitations. There's no built-in scheduling system or daily streak tracker (yet), and while it does well with facts and logic, it's less ideal for subjects that require creative feedback, like writing or design critique. Still, for most academic subjects, it's an incredibly helpful tool that could seriously replace or at least supplement tutoring apps, online flashcard platforms and study guides. ChatGPT's Study mode offers a completely new way to learn. It puts the power of a personal tutor at your fingertips and actually makes studying feel (dare I say it?) fun. Students of all ages and levels prepping for exams, revisiting subjects or just learning something new for the joy of it, should try this tool. After testing the new feature with a variety of prompts, this update feels like the smartest way to study yet. Follow Tom's Guide on Google News to get our up-to-date news, how-tos, and reviews in your feeds. Make sure to click the Follow button.
NDTV
02-07-2025
- Science
- NDTV
'Writing Is Thinking': Do Students Who Use ChatGPT Learn Less?
When Jocelyn Leitzinger had her university students write about times in their lives they had witnessed discrimination, she noticed that a woman named Sally was the victim in many of the stories. "It was very clear that ChatGPT had decided this is a common woman's name," said Leitzinger, who teaches an undergraduate class on business and society at the University of Illinois in Chicago. "They weren't even coming up with their own anecdotal stories about their own lives," she told AFP. Leitzinger estimated that around half of her 180 students used ChatGPT inappropriately at some point last semester -- including when writing about the ethics of artificial intelligence (AI), which she called both "ironic" and "mind-boggling". So she was not surprised by recent research which suggested that students who use ChatGPT to write essays engage in less critical thinking. The preprint study, which has not been peer-reviewed, was shared widely online and clearly struck a chord with some frustrated educators. The team of MIT researchers behind the paper have received more than 3,000 emails from teachers of all stripes since it was published online last month, lead author Nataliya Kosmyna told AFP. 'Soulless' AI Essays For the small study, 54 adult students from the greater Boston area were split into three groups. One group used ChatGPT to write 20-minute essays, one used a search engine, and the final group had to make do with only their brains. The researchers used EEG devices to measure the brain activity of the students, and two teachers marked the essays. The ChatGPT users scored significantly worse than the brain-only group on all levels. The EEG showed that different areas of their brains connected to each other less often. And more than 80 percent of the ChatGPT group could not quote anything from the essay they had just written, compared to around 10 percent of the other two groups. By the third session, the ChatGPT group appeared to be mostly focused on copying and pasting. The teachers said they could easily spot the "soulless" ChatGPT essays because they had good grammar and structure but lacked creativity, personality and insight. However Kosmyna pushed back against media reports claiming the paper showed that using ChatGPT made people lazier or more stupid. She pointed to the fourth session, when the brain-only group used ChatGPT to write their essay and displayed even higher levels of neural connectivity. Kosmyna emphasised it was too early to draw conclusions from the study's small sample size but called for more research into how AI tools could be used more carefully to help learning. Ashley Juavinett, a neuroscientist at the University of California San Diego who was not involved in the research, criticised some "offbase" headlines that wrongly extrapolated from the preprint. "This paper does not contain enough evidence nor the methodological rigour to make any claims about the neural impact of using LLMs (large language models such as ChatGPT) on our brains," she told AFP. Thinking Outside The Bot Leitzinger said the research reflected how she had seen student essays change since ChatGPT was released in 2022, as both spelling errors and authentic insight became less common. Sometimes students do not even change the font when they copy and paste from ChatGPT, she said. But Leitzinger called for empathy for students, saying they can get confused when the use of AI is being encouraged by universities in some classes but is banned in others. The usefulness of new AI tools is sometimes compared to the introduction of calculators, which required educators to change their ways. But Leitzinger worried that students do not need to know anything about a subject before pasting their essay question into ChatGPT, skipping several important steps in the process of learning. A student at a British university in his early 20s who wanted to remain anonymous told AFP he found ChatGPT was a useful tool for compiling lecture notes, searching the internet and generating ideas. "I think that using ChatGPT to write your work for you is not right because it's not what you're supposed to be at university for," he said. The problem goes beyond high school and university students. Academic journals are struggling to cope with a massive influx of AI-generated scientific papers. Book publishing is also not immune, with one startup planning to pump out 8,000 AI-written books a year. "Writing is thinking, thinking is writing, and when we eliminate that process, what does that mean for thinking?" Leitzinger asked.
Yahoo
06-06-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
How AI could help stop the next pandemic before it starts
Could artificial intelligence tools be used to stop the next pandemic before it starts? During the Covid pandemic, new technology developed by researchers at Johns Hopkins and Duke universities didn't exist. But, for the first time, researchers there say they've devised a revolutionary large language modeling tool - the type of generative AI used in ChatGP - to help predict the spread of any infectious disease, such as bird flu, monkeypox, and RSV. That could help save lives and reduce infections. 'Covid-19 elucidated the challenge of predicting disease spread due to the interplay of complex factors that were constantly changing,' Johns Hopkins' Lauren Gardner, a modeling expert who created the Covid dashboard that was relied upon by people worldwide during the pandemic, said in a statement. 'When conditions were stable the models were fine. However, when new variants emerged or policies changed, we were terrible at predicting the outcomes because we didn't have the modeling capabilities to include critical types of information,' she added. 'The new tool fills this gap.' Gardner was one of the authors of the study published Thursday in the Nature Computational Science journal. The tool, named PandemicLLM, considers recent infection spikes, new variants, and stringent protective measures. The researchers utilized data that had never been used before in pandemic prediction tools, finding that PandemicLLM could accurately predict disease patterns and hospitalization trends one to three weeks out. The data included rates of cases hospitalizations and vaccines, types of government policies, characteristics of disease variants and their prevalence, and state-level demographics. The model incorporates these elements to predict how they will come together and affect how disease behaves. They retroactively applied PandemicLLM to the Covid pandemic, looking at each state over the course of 19 months. The authors said the tool was particularly successful when the outbreak was in flux. It also outperformed existing state-of-the-art forecasting methods, including the highest performing ones on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's CovidHub. 'Traditionally we use the past to predict the future,' author Hao 'Frank' Yang, a Johns Hopkins assistant professor of civil and systems engineering, said. 'But that doesn't give the model sufficient information to understand and predict what's happening. Instead, this framework uses new types of real-time information.' Going forward, they are looking at how large language models can replicate the ways individuals make decisions about their health. They hope that such a model would help officials to design safer and more effective policies. More than a million Americans have died from Covid. It's not a matter of if there will be a next pandemic, but when. Right now, the U.S. is dealing with the spread of H5N1 bird flu, RSV, HMPV, pertussis, and measles, among other health concerns. Vaccination rates for measles have plunged since the pandemic, and general vaccine hesitancy has increased. That has resulted in fears that the nation could see decades of health progress reversed. Furthermore, U.S. health officials have acted to separate from global efforts to respond to pandemics, withdrawing from the World Health Organization earlier this year. Last month, they limited access to Covid vaccines for certain groups. 'We know from Covid-19 that we need better tools so that we can inform more effective policies,' Gardner said. 'There will be another pandemic, and these types of frameworks will be crucial for supporting public health response.'
Hans India
29-04-2025
- Business
- Hans India
OpenAI Enhances ChatGPT with New Shopping, Search, and WhatsApp Features
ChatGPT is stepping up its game to become a more helpful tool for online shopping. OpenAI recently announced new improvements aimed at making ChatGPT's web search and shopping features more powerful and user-friendly. In a fresh update, OpenAI revealed that users can now shop directly from within the ChatGPT app. This feature is part of the updated ChatGPT Search mode, allowing users to browse and find products across the internet, similar to how Google Search operates. "We're excited to announce we've launched several improvements to ChatGPT search, and today we're starting to roll out a better shopping experience," OpenAI shared in a post on X. The company emphasize edits goal to make "shopping simpler and faster to find, compare, and buy products in ChatGPT." This new shopping functionality is available on ChatGPT's default 4-o model. Shopping We're experimenting with making shopping simpler and faster to find, compare, and buy products in ChatGPT. ✅ Improved product results ✅ Visual product details, pricing, and reviews ✅ Direct links to buy Product results are chosen independently and are not ads.… — OpenAI (@OpenAI) April 28, 2025 ChatGPTSearch has rapidly become one of OpenAI's most-used and fastest-growing features. According to OpenAI, "Search has become one of our most popular& fastest growing features, with over 1 billion web searches just in thepast week," demonstrating how central search has become to the ChatGP Texperience. With the new update, users can expect to see improved product results, visual details, pricing information, reviews, and direct links to buy products. Importantly, OpenAI clarified that "product results are chosen independently and are not ads," reassuring users that the recommendations are unbiased. The feature is being rolled out to Plus, Pro, Free, and even logged-out users across all regions where ChatGPT is available, with full availability expected in the next few days. During our testing on a free ChatGPT account, we found a mix of functional links and product names. For example, while recommendations for Amazon India and Flipkart worked correctly, other brand product names were offered, along with a comparison with similar products. Additionally, a YouTube video was also displayed. You can find the screenshots of our ChatGPT testing. Delete Edit Alongside the shopping enhancements, OpenAI also expanded ChatGPT's integration with WhatsApp. Now, users can send a WhatsApp message to 1-800-ChatGPT (+1-800-242-8478) to receive live updates, answers, and even real-time sports scores. Search in WhatsApp You can now send a WhatsApp message to 1-800-ChatGPT (+1-800-242-8478) to get up-to-date answers and live sports scores. Accessible everywhere ChatGPT is — OpenAI (@OpenAI) April 28, 2025
RTÉ News
25-04-2025
- Business
- RTÉ News
Google says deep AI investments powering ad sales
Google parent Alphabet has reassured jittery tech investors that its AI investments were powering returns at its crucial ad business, downplaying any impact from global economic uncertainty, for now. The search giant's first-quarter profit and revenue beat expectations, and the company said it would buy back $70 billion in stock, pushing its shares up 4% after market and adding $75 billion to its market value. Alphabet reaffirmed its ambitious AI build-out plans and backed its $75 billion capex guidance for the year, offering hopes for investors in Meta and Amazon, whose shares also rose in aftermarket trading. US President Donald Trump's trade policy has triggered worries of an economic downturn, prompting companies to rethink their spending on advertising. It has also fuelled investor concern that tech giants may have to pause or slow their ambitious AI infrastructure build-outs due to rising costs from tit-for-tat tariffs between the US and China. Big Tech has continued to defend its aggressive AI investments, saying these were necessary to remain competitive. But analysts have said there are early signs of tech majors pulling back on new data center commitments. "I saw the narrative around infrastructure spending as being one that was particularly a negative narrative in the market, suggesting that AI investments had peaked and that this was a sign that the bubble was deflating. And I think what Google told us today was it's absolutely not the case," said Will Rhind, CEO of global ETF issuer GraniteShares. Revenue from Google's mainstay ad business, which makes up nearly three-quarters of its overall revenue, rose 8.5% to $66.89 billion in the quarter - a slowdown from the prior quarter's 10.6% increase, but still above analysts' expectations for a rise of 7.7%. Still, Google's chief business officer Philipp Schindler told analysts during a conference call the company was not immune to macroeconomic uncertainty. "The changes to de minimis exemption will obviously cause a slight headwind to our ads business in 2025, primarily from APAC (Asia Pacific)-based retailers," he said, referring to Trump's order this month to end a trade rule allowing low-value packages from China and Hong Kong to enter the US free of duties. Some of the biggest US advertisers include Chinese e-commerce websites Temu and Shein, and they are sharply cutting their US digital ad spending, industry data showed, in a move that could dent ad revenues at Google and Facebook parent Meta. The integration of AI into Google search is key to its advertising appeal, as it offers advertisers the ability to run more effective campaigns and get more return on their dollars. CEO Sundar Pichai said AI Overviews, the summaries that appear above traditional hyperlinks to relevant webpages, now have 1.5 billion users per month. In March, Google added a new AI-only mode to its search. "Search revenue growth continues to be strong despite worries about generative AI platforms, such as ChatGPT, impacting the search business," said David Heger, an analyst at Edward Jones. Google Cloud reported a 28% rise in revenue to $12.26 billion, slowing from the 30.1% growth reported in the previous quarter. Analysts were expecting the unit to report revenue of $12.27 billion, according to LSEG's data compilation. The company reported total revenue of $90.23 billion for the first quarter, compared to analysts' average estimate of $89.12 billion. Alphabet reported a profit of $2.81 per share for the January-March period, beating estimates of $2.01 per share, according to LSEG data. The firm also said it would raise its quarterly dividend by 5% to 21 cents per share. The company spent $17.20 billion on capital expenditures in the quarter, a 43% increase from the same period a year earlier.
