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Study mode

openai.com

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Re: Study mode

#221

Post by bretpiatt »

posix86 wrote: post #178
jryio wrote: post #5

I would like to see randomized control group studies using study mode. Does it offer meaningful benefits to students over self directed study? Does it out perform students who are "learning how to learn"? What affect does allowing students to make mistakes have compared to being guided through what to review? I would hope Study Mode would produce flash card prompts and quantize information for usage in spaced repetit…

There's studies showing that LLM makes experienced devs slower in their work. I wouldn't be surprised if it was the same for self study. However consider the extent to which LLMs make the learning process more enjoyable. More students will keep pushing because they have someone to ask. Also, having fun & being motivated is such a massive factor when it comes to learning. And, finally, keeping at it at 50% the speed f…

*slower with Sonnet 3.7 on large open source code bases where the developer is a senior member of the project core team.

https://metr.org/blog/2025-07-10-early-2025-ai-experienced-o...

I believe we'll see the benefits and drawbacks of AI augmentation to humans performing various tasks will vary wildly based on the task, the way the AI is being asked to interact, and the AI model.

Re: Study mode

#222

Post by tootyskooty »

x187463 wrote: post #114

I'm really waiting for somebody to figure out the correct interface for all this. For example, study mode will present you with a wall of text containing information, examples, and questions. There's no great way to associate your answers with specific questions. The chat interface just isn't good for this sort of interaction. ChatGPT really needs to build its own canvas/artifact interface wherein questions/responses…

I gave it a shot with periplus.app :). Not perfect by any means, but it's a different UX than chat so you might find it interesting.

Re: Study mode

#223

Post by sebzim4500 »

Workaccount2 wrote: post #65

An acquaintance of mine has a start-up in this space and uses OpenAI to do essentially the same thing. This must look like, and may well be, the guillotine for him... It's my primary fear building anything on these models, they can just come eat your lunch once it looks yummy enough. Tread carefully

I'm too young to have experienced this, but I'm sure others here aren't.

During the early days of tech, was there prevailing wisdom that software companies would never be able to compete with hardware companies because the hardware companies would always be able to copy them and ship the software with the hardware?

Because I think it's basically the analogous situation. People assume that the foundation model providers have some massive advantage over the people building on top of them, but I don't really see any evidence for this.

Re: Study mode

#224

Post by rwyinuse »

findingMeaning wrote: post #159

I have a question: Why do we even bother to learn if AI is going to solve everything for us? If the promised and fabled AGI is about to approach, what is the incentive or learning to deal with these small problems? Could someone enlighten me? What is the value of knowledge work?

Well, you could use AI to learn you more theoretical knowledge on things like farming, hunting and fishing. That knowledge could be handy after societal collapse that is likely to come within a few decades.

Apart from that, I do think that AI makes a lot of traditional teaching obsolete. Depending on your field, much of university studies is just memorizing content and writing essays / exam answers based on that, after which you forget most of it. That kind of learning, as in accumulation of knowledge, is no longer very useful.

Re: Study mode

#225

Post by ZYbCRq22HbJ2y7 »

johnfn wrote: post #167
ZYbCRq22HbJ2y7 wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It used to be that if you got stuck on a concept, you're basically screwed No, not really. > Unless it was common enough to show up in a well formed question on stack exchange, it was pretty much impossible, and the only thing you can really do is keep paving forward and hope at some point, it'll make sense to you. Your experience isn't universal. Some students learned how to do research in school.

"Screwed" = spending hours sifting through poorly-written, vaguely-related documents to find a needle in a haystack. Why would I want to continue doing that?

> "Screwed" = spending hours sifting through poorly-written, vaguely-related documents to find a needle in a haystack.

From the parent comment:

> it was pretty much impossible ... hope at some point, it'll make sense to you

Not sure where you are getting the additional context for what they meant by "screwed", but I am not seeing it.

Re: Study mode

#226

Post by oc1 »

I'm wondering where we are heading in the consumer business space. The big ai providers can basically kill any small or medium business and startup in a few days by integrating the product into their offering. They have all data to look at trends and make decisions. Investors are shying away to invest in ai startups if they are not trying to be infrastructure or ai marketplace platforms. So many amazing things could be possible with ai but the big ai providers are actively hindering innovation and have way too much power. I'm not a big fan if regulations but in this case we need to break up these companies as they are getting too powerful.

Btw most people don't know but Anthropic did something similiar months ago but their product heads messed up the launch by keeping it locked up only for american edu institutions. Openai copies almost everything Anthropic does and vice versa (see claude code / codex ).

Re: Study mode

#227

Post by marcusverus »

apwell23 wrote: post #72
m3kw9 wrote: post #33

tried it and couldn't really tell between a good prompt to "teach me" and this.

same. i can't tell whats different. gives me same output regardless for the prompts in the example. i don't get it.

Highly analytical 120 IQ HNers aren't the target audience for this product. The target audience is the type of person who lacks the capacity to use AI to teach themselves.

Re: Study mode

#228

Post by czhu12 »

threetonesun wrote: post #37
czhu12 wrote: post #26

I'll personally attest: LLM's have been absolutely incredible to self learn new things post graduation. It used to be that if you got stuck on a concept, you're basically screwed. Unless it was common enough to show up in a well formed question on stack exchange, it was pretty much impossible, and the only thing you can really do is keep paving forward and hope at some point, it'll make sense to you. Now, everyone ba…

> the only thing you can really do is keep paving forward and hope at some point, it'll make sense to you. I find it odd that someone who has been to college would see this as a _bad_ way to learn something.

The main difference in college was that there were office hours

Re: Study mode

#229

Post by belter »

czhu12 wrote: post #26

I'll personally attest: LLM's have been absolutely incredible to self learn new things post graduation. It used to be that if you got stuck on a concept, you're basically screwed. Unless it was common enough to show up in a well formed question on stack exchange, it was pretty much impossible, and the only thing you can really do is keep paving forward and hope at some point, it'll make sense to you. Now, everyone ba…

Depending on context, I would advise you to be extremely careful. Modern LLMs are Gell‑Mann Amnesia to the square. Once you watched a LLM butcher a topic you know extremely well, it is spooky how much authority they still project on the next interaction.
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