Nostalgia and the Rapid Rise of ChatGPT Usage

This episode covers a massive amount of AI-related news and research, especially developments over the past week, including ChatGPT's new "study mode," major platform announcements from Google, Microsoft, and OpenAI, generative video and music tools, and the implications of AI on jobs and education. The episode also highlights a new Stanford GenAI for Education hub and discusses current AI policy and access initiatives globally.

News   ChatGPT Study Mode: https://openai.com/index/chatgpt-study-mode/ 

• Simon Willison info on the system prompt for Study Mode: https://simonwillison.net/2025/Jul/29/openai-introducing-study-mode/ 

• Dr Philippa Hardman's LinkedIn post on Study Mode: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/dr-philippa-hardman-057851120_as-a-member-of-openais-educator-advisor-ugcPost-7356234831929696256-OF6k

  Google announced “Guided Learning” mode for Gemini https://blog.google/products/gemini/google-ai-pro-students-learning/    Open models by OpenAI https://openai.com/open-models/    Google released Gemini Storybooks https://gemini.google/overview/storybook/   ElevenLabs dropped a new multi-lingual music generation model https://elevenlabs.io/music    OpenAI giving ChatGPT Enterprise to every US Federal Government department for $1 a year https://openai.com/index/providing-chatgpt-to-the-entire-us-federal-workforce/   Microsoft Copilot released for 13+ students  https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/blog/EducationBlog/microsoft-365-copilot-chat-for-students-13/4412957    18 months. 12,000 questions. A whole lot of anxiety. What I learned from reading students’ ChatGPT logs https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/jul/27/it-wants-users-hooked-and-jonesing-for-their-next-fix-are-young-people-becoming-too-reliant-on-ai 

The Presidential AI Challenge https://orise.orau.gov/ai-challenge/ 

 

Research

GenAI for Education Hub at Stanford University https://scale.stanford.edu/genai/repository 

Working with AI: Measuring the Occupational Implications of Generative AI https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.07935 

Prompting Science Report 3: I'll pay you or I'll kill you - but will you care? https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=5375404