ChatGPT is Now the World's Largest Learning Platform: How AI is Reshaping Global Education

Watch the Full Interview

Leah Belsky, Head of Education at OpenAI, joins host Andrew Mayne and college students for a comprehensive discussion about how AI is fundamentally reshaping education worldwide. With ChatGPT now serving 600 million learners as the world’s largest learning platform, Belsky reveals how governments are integrating AI into core educational infrastructure, why Study Mode represents the future of personalized tutoring, and how this technology is bridging critical equity gaps in global education access.

Key Insights

• ChatGPT has become the world’s largest learning platform with 600 million users, serving both formal educational institutions and informal learning needs across all age groups globally
• OpenAI’s Study Mode uses Socratic questioning methodology, asking clarifying questions and providing personalized feedback rather than simply delivering answers, mimicking effective human tutoring approaches
• Countries including Estonia are proactively integrating AI into core educational infrastructure to prepare students for AI-powered economies and graduate AI-ready workforces for global competitiveness
• AI serves as a great educational equalizer, providing personalized tutoring support to students without access to quality teachers, private tutors, or educationally supportive parents
• Current employment data shows 70% of employers prefer candidates with AI skills over those with up to 10 years of traditional experience, fundamentally changing workforce preparation requirements
• The “brain rot” concern is legitimate only when AI is used as an answer machine rather than as a learning tool that promotes intellectual struggle, critical thinking, and information processing
• Universities are redesigning assessments to focus on meaning, application, and reflection rather than fact recall, adapting pedagogical approaches to leverage AI’s capabilities while preserving learning outcomes
• Students report increased confidence and academic engagement when using AI for personalized support, particularly those with learning differences or limited access to educational resources
• Advanced features like multimodal capabilities and voice interaction are enabling new forms of accessible learning for students with disabilities, unlocking educational opportunities previously unavailable

The Global Learning Platform

ChatGPT has achieved unprecedented scale as an educational platform, serving 600 million users worldwide with learning identified as one of the top use cases. This represents both formal educational usage within institutions and informal learning outside traditional academic systems.

The platform’s reach extends far beyond individual users to encompass entire educational ecosystems. Through OpenAI’s “OpenAI for Countries” program, ministries and governments worldwide are reaching out to integrate AI into their national education strategies.

Estonia emerged as the first country to recognize AI’s potential for educational advancement, despite already having some of the world’s best PISA scores and educational systems. Their proactive approach reflects understanding that AI represents an opportunity to push students and empower teachers even further.

Following Estonia’s lead, countries worldwide are approaching OpenAI because they recognize two critical needs: deploying AI as core educational infrastructure and preparing workforces for AI-powered economies. This dual focus reflects both educational improvement goals and economic competitiveness concerns.

Study Mode Revolution

Study Mode represents OpenAI’s approach to transforming ChatGPT from an answer-providing system into a genuine tutoring experience. The feature emerged from insights gathered during a team trip to India, where researchers observed families spending significant portions of income on tutors and after-school help.

The development process incorporated learning science principles and pedagogical expertise from around the world. OpenAI worked with experts to create “golden examples” of ideal AI responses that encourage curiosity, provide encouraging tone, and cater responses to individual student learning levels.

Study Mode implements Socratic questioning methodology, starting with clarifying questions rather than immediate answers. When students ask broad questions, the system responds with three specific questions to understand what the student really wants to learn, their current knowledge level, and their learning context.

The system includes built-in spaced repetition, returning to topics after time has passed to check retention and reinforce memory formation. This mimics effective human tutoring practices by ensuring students actually remember and can apply what they’ve learned rather than just processing information once.

Bridging Educational Equity

AI’s most significant initial impact in education occurs outside traditional classrooms by equalizing access to adult support and personalized guidance. Many students worldwide lack access to quality teachers, private tutors, or parents capable of providing academic assistance.

Students in OpenAI’s ChatGPT Lab consistently report that AI usage increases their confidence and helps them overcome points where they previously felt stuck or discouraged. One computer science student described years of struggling with coursework and considering giving up before finding ChatGPT provided the personalized tutoring support needed to continue.

The confidence-building aspect proves as important as content delivery. Effective tutors provide encouragement and instill belief that students can progress and succeed. ChatGPT’s infinite patience ensures no question is considered stupid, and it provides honest, reasonable responses to every inquiry.

Accessibility benefits extend particularly to students with learning differences. Belsky’s personal example involves her dyslexic daughter using advanced voice mode to access current events and world knowledge through conversation rather than traditional reading, unlocking previously inaccessible information sources.

Workforce Transformation

Current employment research demonstrates that 70% of employers prefer candidates with AI skills over those with up to 10 years of traditional experience in specific functions. This fundamental shift makes AI literacy essential for workforce readiness across all professional fields.

Educational institutions increasingly deploy AI as core campus infrastructure specifically to ensure graduates possess necessary workforce skills. The requirement extends beyond knowing how to use AI personally to understanding how to integrate AI capabilities into professional workflows and decision-making processes.

Coding literacy becomes increasingly important as AI tools make programming more accessible. Rather than replacing the need to understand code, AI-assisted development makes coding skills more valuable by enabling broader participation in software creation and digital tool development.

Professional services and financial services show particularly strong productivity gains for workers using AI. However, the pattern extends across industries where graduates need both AI utilization skills for job applications and ongoing professional effectiveness.

The Brain Rot Debate

The concern about AI causing “brain rot” in educational contexts reflects legitimate worries about learning effectiveness when AI functions merely as an answer machine. Learning fundamentally requires struggle, information processing, and intellectual effort that AI shortcuts can undermine.

Belsky uses the analogy of learning long division: providing a calculator eliminates the struggle necessary to understand mathematical concepts. Similarly, copy-pasting AI responses prevents the cognitive processing required for genuine learning and retention.

However, AI becomes valuable for learning at higher levels once foundational concepts are mastered through struggle. Advanced mathematics students can use calculators to tackle more complex problems, and similarly, AI can enable more sophisticated learning once basic skills are developed.

The solution involves using AI to drive feedback, provide personalized tutoring, and help students ask and answer questions in different ways. This approach expands critical thinking and creativity rather than replacing intellectual effort with automated responses.

Student Perspectives

College students demonstrate sophisticated approaches to AI usage that balance efficiency with genuine learning. Students report using AI for brainstorming, research parameter setting, and critical analysis by prompting systems to embody different personas and perspectives.

Effective student strategies include asking AI to act as consultants, creative professors, or critical reviewers rather than simply seeking positive feedback. Students also paste specific research sources into conversations and request AI to draw conclusions only from provided materials.

Both students interviewed chose to reduce social media usage in favor of ChatGPT for learning and day-to-day tasks. They describe ChatGPT as more valuable for learning, fact-checking, and research compared to passive content consumption on social platforms.

Students express awareness that AI literacy and coding skills are becoming essential for career success. However, they also demonstrate concern about over-reliance on AI leading to gaps in fundamental understanding needed for professional effectiveness.

Government Integration

Estonia’s proactive approach reflects broader global recognition that AI represents critical educational and economic infrastructure. Countries implementing AI in education systems focus both on improving educational outcomes and developing AI-ready workforces for competitive advantage.

The integration involves more than creating new AI courses; it requires ensuring every secondary school graduate has used AI as part of their education. This comprehensive approach prepares students for economies where AI utilization becomes fundamental to professional effectiveness.

Educational institutions initially struggled with AI policies, often beginning with policing and banning rather than establishing clear guidelines for appropriate usage. However, institutions increasingly move toward redesigning assessments and homework to leverage AI capabilities while maintaining learning objectives.

Universities report that providing AI access equalizes opportunities for students, ensuring those on financial aid aren’t disadvantaged compared to peers who can afford premium AI services. This equity focus drives institutional decisions to provide AI as core campus infrastructure.

The Future of Teaching

Educational approaches are evolving from fact-recall assessments toward meaning-making, application, and contextual understanding. This shift leverages AI’s strength in information retrieval while emphasizing uniquely human capabilities in analysis and synthesis.

Students envision hybrid models where AI handles standardized content delivery through personalized, multimodal experiences while human teachers focus on mentorship, social skills development, and ethical guidance. This division optimizes both technological capabilities and human strengths.

The personalization potential includes AI systems that remember individual learning preferences, return to topics for spaced repetition, and adapt content delivery to different learning styles. Future systems might proactively remind students of learning goals and suggest review sessions.

However, human mentorship remains irreplaceable for providing real-world context, professional guidance, and ethical frameworks. Students emphasize the importance of learning from practitioners who have actual experience in their fields rather than relying solely on AI-generated content.

Key Quotes