Operator enters the chat + five finds
This week in EDU: January 20-24, 2025
ChatGPT for Education explores how AI can help you teach and learn more effectively. Each Friday, the OpenAI team shares the latest product news and our favorite finds in AI and education. Subscribe to receive roundups like this and profiles from innovators in education in your email inbox.
What’s new from OpenAI
Operator
This week we released Operator, an agent that can go to the web to perform tasks for you. Using its own browser, it can look at a webpage and interact with it by typing, clicking, and scrolling. The ability to use the same interfaces and tools that humans interact with on a daily basis broadens the utility of AI. It is currently in research preview, meaning it has limitations and will evolve based on user feedback.
Next week we want to showcase the best Operator use cases from our community and spotlight how educators think agents will change how they prepare students, especially in the field of computer science. Chime in below in the comments to share:
What tasks did you ask Operator to do for you?
How do you want to use agents in your work as an educator?
How will agents change how you teach?
Five finds
Here are our favorite finds from the week about how educators are experimenting with ChatGPT in the classroom and in their work at large.
1️⃣ What impact are AI tools like ChatGPT having on how humans learn? Dr Philippa Hardman summarizes five recent studies that answer that question, along with actionable tips for educators.
2️⃣ Incorporating actions into custom GPTs lets you talk to data with no code. Associate Professor at Syracuse University, Adam Peruta, tried out actions in a custom GPT he built for tracking local bird sightings.
3️⃣ “The biggest challenge isn’t the technology itself, but how we lead through it.” Jeppe Klitgaard Stricker shares 15 ways to navigate generative AI conversations with administration on campus.
4️⃣ Lily Lee and Aditya Syam break down everything you need to know about AI agents, and start to imagine how they might be used in schools as a personalized study coach, laboratory safety supervisor or historical reenactment experiences.
5️⃣ OpenAI, GSV Ventures and top academic institutions are coming together to discuss how to build an AI-powered university. Join the webinar on Tuesday, January 28.
What about you?
How did you use ChatGPT this week? What other ways did you see people experimenting with it?
Operator seems like it has the potential to enable cheating on a vaster scale than previously. I hope OpenAI is considering what tools it can put in the hand of educators, schools, and vendors to help mitigate that risk.
Great post - and thanks for the mention, Mamie💥