AI tutors that ask before they answer
Originally posted on LinkedIn, July 15, 2025.
A student at the University of San Francisco School of Law uploads a recording of his latest lecture to Claude. Instead of producing a ready-made summary, the model asks him: How would you build a legal argument? What evidence supports the position you chose? What would the other side do?
He does not get an answer. He starts thinking.
Through new integrations with Canvas, Panopto, and Wiley, Anthropic's language model is becoming a regular part of academic learning systems. Not as a convenience tool, but as a way to encourage thought.
Students upload files, articles, and class recordings. Claude responds with open-ended questions, alternative ways to frame ideas, and conversational guidance that resembles a personal tutor. This new setup is called "Learning Mode," where the AI asks questions before it answers.
At the same time, users have reported a new feature called "Study Together" appearing in experimental versions of ChatGPT. It is an interactive learning tool that tries to stop giving answers and start practicing understanding.
This marks a deeper shift from models that supply knowledge to models that provoke thought. The tools flooding us with answers are beginning to change how questions are formed.
The assumption that AI exists to save time or make a process more efficient is giving way to another approach. AI can reshape the thinking process, not just the output. The academic context makes this especially clear. At universities such as USF and Northumbria, this is not only about adopting technology. It is a reconsideration of how learning works.
This is also a question of responsibility. If a student learns to challenge arguments, examine assumptions, and ask questions before answering, critical thinking may become sharper rather than weaker in the age of AI.
In a parallel move, OpenAI joined an American Federation of Teachers initiative in July 2025 to establish the "National Academy for AI Instruction."
Over the next five years, the program will train 400,000 teachers through workshop days and practical courses. It will focus on classroom technology tools, ethics, and critical thinking. OpenAI will contribute $10 million and provide physical spaces and online schools with professional guidance.
This changes the role of the education system from transmitting information to developing leaders in digital thinking.
The need is urgent. I previously wrote about the failure of the current education system since the AI revolution, and how everyone is trying to learn the technology and use it to get around the system, often successfully.
The companies building these models are not ignoring the disruption. They are working to create a new learning environment. For years, people have called for new teaching methods and challenged how the education system works. The AI revolution may finally make that change possible.
Read Anthropic's blog post and OpenAI's blog post.
