OpenAI is offering free ChatGPT Plus service to all college students in the US and Canada who qualify. The company launched a webpage for the offer that details who is eligible and what’s included.
ChatGPT Plus usually costs $20 a month and offers faster responses from the chatbot service and doesn’t limits users on things like image generation, which the company just started offering as a free service limited to a few uses at a time. Students from a degree-granting school that qualifies will get two months of ChatGPT Plus until the offer ends on May 31.
The student webpage includes a tool that allows students to see if their school qualifies and to ask for assistance if they’re not on the list. ChatGPT also verifies the student through a few methods listed on the site.
OpenAI’s ChatGPT service has seen a surge of popularity recently in part due to its revamped image-generation tool. According to reports, ChatGPT has about 150 million active weekly users.
What it means for students
Free access to ChatGPT’s revamped AI image generator and its other capabilities such as research summaries and real-time conversations will open the door for more AI familiarity, said Mark van Rijmenam, a strategic futurist and author of the book Future Visions.
“This will help students become more familiar with these powerful AI tools,” van Rijmenam said. “However, just giving access alone is not enough. We need to teach students how to use these tools and how to leverage them.”
Last year, OpenAI introduced ChatGPT Edu, a version of its AI tools for universities, which, along with the free offer, may signal a push by the company into more educational efforts.
Van Rijmenam said that universities themselves should be adjusting their curriculum “so instead of learning rote knowledge, which becomes less relevant in the age of AI, (they) teach students how to embrace AI responsibly.”
