Chegg’s stock plunged 48% on May 2 after it released an earnings report that said AI poses a significant risk to the company’s business. “Student interest in ChatGPT has increased significantly since March. We now believe it has an impact on our new customer growth rate,” says the report that caused the surprising stockout. said. Edtech companies are working hard to catch up by developing their own educational chatbots that they believe will rival ChatGPT, said CEO Dan Rosensweig. luckBrainstorm Tech conference on Wednesday.
“The reason I was invited is because I lost 40% of my value in five minutes, so I am the representative who got your butt kicked on the open market by AI,” Rosensweig said. “So for those who didn’t want to receive it, I received it instead,” Rosenweig said with apparent sarcasm. “you’re welcome.”
Chegg’s new AI tool, CheggMate, becomes a personal learning assistant for students creating bespoke lesson plans. Over the past 10 years, the AI, trained on his 100 million correct answer sets for 17 million new questions posed by students each year, has been able to give students Create a tailored learning experience. It also includes factors such as your mood for the day. It also connects students to remote study groups and helps them find job opportunities.
“Imagine the following scenario,” Rosenweig said. “You know who you are, you know how you’re feeling that day, you know what you’re studying, when your midterms are, and you talk to someone who knows you. People who are good at it know what they are not good at, make a plan for you, and act as your advocate.”
At the moment, popular large-scale language models such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Microsoft’s Bing, and Google’s Bard tend to “hallucinate” by presenting false or fabricated information as fact. Rosensweig said Chegg aims to build trustworthy chatbots that always give the right answer.
CheggMate can also incorporate various health metrics into student learning plans. It can track student sleep time and recommend meditation practice. It also provides professional guidance, such as providing data on the top positions held by graduates of the same major at the student’s alma mater.
“We go through all the tests you upload to show you what professional skills you can develop, provide opportunities to learn skills you don’t have, and ultimately tie them to your job and rank them. ” said Rosensweig. .
“Deprioritize the curiosity that really appeals”
At Brainstorm Tech, Harvard graduate Nadia Okamoto questioned whether Chegg would really be used for learning rather than as an easy way for students to cheat. Okamoto, who founded the menstrual uniformity nonprofit PERIOD, admitted that he used Chegg to solve a workbook at Harvard University, not interested in learning, and with the idea that “C will get a degree.” said he had
“I worry about talking to a lot of people I meet in my day job about how much ChatGPT is being used to complete essays to do homework and workbooks,” Okamoto said. “My concern as a Gen Z elder is that these kinds of tools make it easier and easier to get answers, and I feel like really compelling curiosity is being deprioritized. is.”
Chegg was coined as a verb because it is frequently used by students to cheat. “I have a check.” “Checking” homework means quickly searching for answers from the site’s vast database or asking questions from Chegg’s experts who respond to student subscribers 24/7. Chegg’s stock more than tripled his price during the pandemic when most schools moved to distance learning and exams went online.
Rosensweig replied that Harvard University’s population is a small fraction of the U.S. population, and that Chegg is concerned about underprivileged students who cannot access an elite education.
The CEO added that he believes cheating with Chegg will only work if professors don’t create their own test and homework materials.
“I don’t care what the Harvard kids did. I care about the kids trying to make their lives better,” Rosensweig said. spoke at the conference. “We are built for students who are self-motivated, who want to learn, who need to understand, and who need to graduate with the skills.”
