ChatGPT Free for Millions of College Students

College students in the U.S. and Canada now have a standing invitation to try ChatGPT Plus — normally $20/month — gratis.

The free ride, which lasts through May 31, should be a big hit with those in the university set, who are by far the number one users of ChatGPT.

Observes writer Michael Nunez: “The education market represents a crucial battleground for AI companies.

“According to OpenAI, over one-third of U.S. adults aged 18-24 already use ChatGPT — with approximately 25% of their queries related to academic work.”

In other news and analysis on AI writing:

*ChatGPT Now Interfaces With Your Company Data: Writers who use ChatGPT at work should appreciate this new perk: You can now link ChatGPT to your company’s internal database.

Observes writer Emilia David: “ChatGPT Team users — one of the company’s paid tiers — can connect internal knowledge databases directly to the platform.”

The advanced capability — fusing ChatGPT to business data — is the number one most requested feature from businesses, according to Nate Gonzalez, product leader, OpenAI.

*ChatGPT Gets a Memory Boost: ChatGPT’s memory — which helps many writers by getting to know how and why they’re using ChatGPT — just got a boost.

Writer Cecily Mauran reports that “ChatGPT can now reference all of your past chats to provide more personalized responses.

“In addition to the saved memories that were there before, it can now reference your past chats to deliver responses that feel noticeably more relevant and useful.”

*One Writer’s Take: Top Ten Tools for AI Research: Scribes who rely heavily on AI for daily research will want to check-out this extremely in-depth guide by Osamu Ekhator.

Ekhator’s highlights on his ten favorite AI research tools: “The best AI for research supports tasks like idea generation, content creation and data analysis.

“AI tools like ChatGPT and Grammarly are exceptional for enhancing research writing and improving text quality.”

*Google Deep Research Gets an Upgrade: Writer Abner Li indicates that fans of Google Deep Research will find that the AI tool now has more punch.

Observes Li: “Gemini Advanced subscribers can now perform Deep Research with Google’s most intelligent 2.5 Pro (experimental) model.”

“Google says ‘raters preferred the reports generated by Gemini Deep Research powered by 2.5 Pro over other leading deep research providers by more than a 2-to-1 margin.'”

*Google Beefs-Up AI in Google Workspace: Writers using the globally popular Google Workspace platform can look forward to more AI in the apps they use there.

Writer Sabrina Ortiz reports that Google Meets, Chat, Docs, Vids and Sheets in Workspace have all been enhanced by AI with a new upgrade.

Adds Ortiz: “The updates even include agentic AI capabilities.”

*Horse Race for ‘Top AI Engine’ Crown: Much Tighter: There’s great news for writers and others who believe that fierce competition among top AI writers/chatbots keeps prices low.

A new study from Stanford University finds there are more contenders in the horse race of AI writers/chatbots — and that there is just a smidgeon of distance between the leader and the tenth-place contender.

Observes writer Tiernan Ray: “When ChatGPT first emerged, the top large language models (AI engines) were dominated by OpenAI and Google.

“That field now includes China’s DeepSeek AI, Elon Musk’s xAI, Anthropic, Meta Platform’s Meta AI and Mistral AI.”

*Get a Quick-Study on AI — Free-of-Charge: ChatGPT’s-maker OpenAI is offering a slew of free courses on the myriad facets of the new tech, dubbed ‘OpenAI Academy.”

Observes writer Pragati Chougule: “The academy offers a comprehensive suite of courses — covering fundamental concepts in AI, machine learning and deep learning.

“These courses are designed for individuals with varying levels of expertise — from beginners to experienced professionals.”

*Now Made by AI: 30,000 Hyper-Local Newsletters: Thousands of town and neighborhood newsletters once curated by human beings are now being processed by AI, according to newsletter giant Patch.

Essentially, Patch discovered that the hyper-local newsletters simply could not be sustained using human curation.

Observes Simone Wilson, former product manager, Patch, explaining the need for the switch: “There were certain communities where we couldn’t sell an ad to save our lives.”

*AI BIG PICTURE: Online Store Goliath Decrees: ‘No New Hires if AI Can Do the Job:’ Managers at online store platform Shopify just got a wake-up call from their CEO: If AI can do a job, don’t dare hire a human for the role.

Observes Shopify CEO Tobi Lutke: “Before asking for more headcount and resources, teams must demonstrate why they cannot get what they want done using AI.”

Ask yourself, Lutke adds: “What would this area look like if autonomous AI agents were already part of the team?”

So much for AI as the ‘happy, innocuous, buddy collaborator.’

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–Joe Dysart is editor of RobotWritersAI.com and a tech journalist with 20+ years experience. His work has appeared in 150+ publications, including The New York Times and the Financial Times of London.

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