The university paid $1.5 million for a “first in the state” campus-wide ChatGPT license in June. The catch though? The version delivered to students is intentionally feature-crippled and, by almost every objective benchmark, less useful than the free public edition. In effect, the university paid a premium to downgrade our educational technology.
University Spokesman Collyn Taylor confirmed in a statement that students will have access to ChatGPT 5. That’s currently the default for the education model. Students will also have access to the GPT-4o model, according to Taylor.
When a student logs onto USC’s ChatGPT, they will see that USC’s version of ChatGPT has had all of its useful features seemingly removed. No more reasoning models, image generation, custom/tailored GPTs or advanced data analysis functions for you. To be truly fair to USC, they so kindly offered us two of the dumber models, gave us the ability to use web search and the ability to use Canvas, a Grammarly-style editing suite. We really ought to thank the university for its heaven-sent gift to the students, shouldn’t we?…