OpenAI and Anthropic are fighting over college students with free AI
Two leading AI labs, OpenAI and Anthropic, just announced major initiatives in higher education. Itas the constant one-upping weave all become familiar with: this week, Anthropic dropped their announcement at 8 AM Wednesday, while OpenAI followed with nearly identical news at 8 AM Thursday.
For Anthropic, this weekas announcement was its first major academic push. It launched Claude for Education, a university-focused version of its chatbot. The company also announced partnerships with Northeastern University, London School of Economics (LSE), and Champlain College, along with with Internet2, which builds university tech infrastructure, and Instructure (maker of Canvas) to increase equitable access to tools that support universities as they integrate AI."
At the center of Anthropicas education-focused offering is Learning mode," a new feature that changes how Claude interacts with students. Instead of just providing answers, the press release says Learning mode will use Socratic questioning to guide students through problems, asking How would you approach this?" or What evidence supports your conclusion?" a with the goal of helping students adevelop critical thin …