The Emergence of ChatGPT Learning Mode: The Twilight of Tutoring or the Dawn of a Golden Era in Education?

Can AI really replace human tutoring? OpenAI's latest "learning model" is not just a tool, it is a scalpel that is dismantling and reorganizing our imagination of education for a new reshaping of value. (Synopsis: Anthropic steals 7 million books to train Claude and faces trillion-dollar piracy lawsuits!) AI giants' rush and legal boundaries) (Background supplement: AI privacy collapse "ChatGPT Dialogue" runs naked in front of the law; Altman: I'm afraid of entering personal information, it's hard to know who will get the information) When OpenAI launched the shock bomb of "learning mode", many parents, students, and even tutors had the same question in their minds, with a trace of anxiety and curiosity: Does an AI that is on call around the clock, knows everything, and can "teach according to aptitude" mean the twilight of the ancient profession of human tutoring? This time, ChatGPT's ambition is clearly more than just a smarter search engine or job helper. Its "learning mode" tries to play the role of an "inspirer" rather than a "solver" through Socratic guided questions and personalized progress adjustments. This move directly enters the core territory of education: the shaping of learning methods. However, if we only stop at the question of whether AI will replace tutoring, it is like standing on the coast arguing about the size of the waves, but ignoring the upcoming tsunami. Real change lies not in replacement, but in restructuring and upgrading. This AI-driven education revolution, the author believes will not eliminate tutoring, but it will be like a sharp scalpel, completely deconstructing the value chain of this profession, forcing all practitioners to rethink their positioning. This is not a signal of the end, but a prelude to a new golden age, only the rules of admission tickets have changed. AI as a Value Chain Dismemberer: The End and Rebirth of the Tutoring Function First of all, we must acknowledge the fact that the role of traditional tutors has never been singular. It is a service package that includes knowledge transfer, homework correction, progress tracking, psychological encouragement, strategic planning, and even time management... and other multiple functions. The emergence of the ChatGPT learning mode, its biggest impact is to "forcibly disassemble" this package. It's like automation transforming a factory. Robots have replaced repetitive, boring, standardizable labor on production lines, but they haven't put all workers out of work. Instead, it has spawned new job titles: systems maintenance engineers, process designers, data analysts. Similarly, AI is taking over the "scalable" knowledge tasks of tutoring services. For example, explain a mathematical concept, provide unlimited practice questions, and answer basic questions for 24 hours. As trial students put it, it's like an "omniscient online teaching assistant" that breaks down difficult content in an orderly manner. In these areas, AI has advantages that humans cannot match: extremely low cost, extremely efficient, and always patient. An hour of human tutoring may cost hundreds or even thousands of dollars, and the time is limited; And ChatGPT, even the paid version, offers unlimited interactions for just $20 per month. This overwhelming cost-effectiveness will completely disrupt the part of the tutoring market that lives purely on "knowledge trafficking". However, this is where the opportunity lies. When machines take over repetitive work, human value shifts upwards, forcing them to focus on high-value areas that AI can't reach. The top tutors of the future will no longer be "walking encyclopedias", but "chief architects of learning". Their role will shift from teaching you to helping you learn. This includes: Motivation and emotional support: Provide empathy and encouragement when students are frustrated or anxious. AI can analyze emotions, but it can't deliver a warm look or a heartfelt "I understand you." Personalized learning strategies: Design a holistic learning path based on students' personalities, habits, and long-term goals, rather than just solving a single problem at hand. Critical Thinking and Value Guidance: Explore the meaning behind knowledge with students and guide them to form independent opinions, which is a "wisdom" level that is difficult for algorithms to reach. Therefore, the author believes that AI will not replace tutors, but will "screen" tutors. It will eliminate teachers who can only follow the script, and at the same time give unprecedented power to learning coaches who know how to use AI as a lever and focus on high-level human services. OpenAI plans to build the "Android system" of education At a deeper level, the real frightening thing about this change is that OpenAI seems to be trying to establish itself as the "underlying infrastructure" of future education, just like Google's Android is to mobile phones, or Amazon's AWS is to cloud computing. Take a look at OpenAI's layout: While launching its products, it is actively collaborating with top academic institutions such as Stanford University's SCALE Initiative. It's not just about getting feedback and improving the product. This is a struggle for "legitimacy" endorsement, in order to promote its technical framework and teaching philosophy into the standard of the entire industry. Once this "education operating system" takes shape, the future power structure may change completely. Traditional textbook publishers, EdTech companies, and even schools themselves may need to think about how to develop their own apps on top of this infrastructure. This means that the competition of the future is no longer a single product confrontation, but a war of ecosystems. In this ecosystem, my ideal future is that of a smart human tutor who no longer sees AI as a competitor, but as a "super plugin" of his own. Imagine the work of the future: Tutors start by having students interact with AI learning patterns for a week, and AI automatically generates a detailed diagnostic report that flags students' knowledge blind spots, common error patterns, and even analyzes students' cognitive load curves. After the tutor gets this report, he no longer has to spend a lot of time on boring mapping tests. He can devote 90% of his energy directly to the most challenging core problems tailored to his students. At any time during the teaching process, he can call on the AI to generate a personalized problem library, or use the visualization function of AI to visualize abstract concepts. In this model, the role of the human tutor shifts from that of a "producer" to a "conductor." He conducts the powerful AI Symphony Orchestra, which plays a unique learning movement for students. This not only did not diminish his value, but greatly amplified his influence. This is the most awe-inspiring vision of the OpenAI layout. The perfection of the machine and the temperature of the mentor Some voices in the market may be: a perfect, all-knowing, patient AI mentor will eventually learn better than emotional, error-making, limited knowledge. Many studies have also pointed out that AI tutoring systems (ITS) are indeed comparable to human tutors in terms of learning outcomes in specific areas. This argument may seem impeccable, but it is based on a fundamental fallacy: it equates learning with the correct input and output of information, which is an engineer's thinking, but ignores the fact that the essence of education is "human growth." Let's dismantle this fallacy. First, AI is not perfect, even in pure knowledge transfer. Research from the University of Warwick found that while both AI and human tutoring can improve students' algebraic abilities, human tutors produce significantly higher learning gains. The reason is,...