Daybreak - OpenAI wants your kid's homework data

Episode Date: October 12, 2025

OpenAI’s latest classroom experiment is starting in India. A deal with the Arise school network gives 10,000 free ChatGPT licenses to teachers but the fine print has schools on edge. But between NDAs, data collection, and new privacy laws, India’s educators are asking what OpenAI really wants from their classrooms. Tune in.Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

Hi, this is Rohan Dharma Kumar. If you've heard any of the Ken's podcasts, you've probably heard me, my interruptions, my analogies, and my contrarian takes on most topics. And you might rightly be wondering why am I interrupting this episode too. It's for a special announcement. For the last few months, I and Sita Raman Ganeshan, my colleague and the Ken's deputy editor, have been working on an ambitious new podcast. It's called Intermission.

We want to tell the secret sauce stories of India's greatest companies. Stories of how they were born, how they fought to survive, how they build their organizations and culture, how they manage to innovate and thrive over decades, and most importantly, how they're poised today. To do that, Sita and I have been reading books, poring over reports, going through financial statements, digging up archives, and talking to dozens of people. And if that wasn't enough, we also decided to throw in video into the mix. Yes, you heard that right. Intermission has also had to find its footing in the world of multi-camera shoots in professional studios, laborious editing, and extensive post-production.

Sita and I are still reeling from the intensity of our first studio recording. Intermission launches on March 23rd. To get alert, as soon as we release our first video. episode, please follow intermission on Spotify and Apple Podcast or subscribe to the Ken's YouTube channel. You can find all of the links at the ken.com slash I am. With that, back to your episode. More than one in 10 chat GPT conversations around the world are about teaching and tutoring. Now, that single fact tells you about something big happening, not in Silicon Valley, but in classrooms.

And in India, where over a million and a half students log in to learn every day, it was only a matter of time before OpenAI came knocking. Which is exactly what happened on a quiet Monday morning in March this year. When Naga-Tumala, the co-founder of Arise, which is a network of private schools across India, answered his phone, he did not expect to be speaking to somebody from OpenAI, which is the company behind ChargbD. This representative was not calling him about a demo or a sale. they were looking for a partner. You see, for nearly a year now, Open AI has been scouting

for a school network that could bring its AI tools into real classrooms. And a rise fits perfectly with over 1,800 schools including pathways, Jaipuria schools and Delhi Public Schools and more than a million and a half K to 12 students. It made sense strategically too. India has the second largest number of chat GPT users after the United States. The company is preparing to open its first Indian office and has already announced a cheaper version of CharGPD. But inside schools, the excitement is mixed with hesitation. Because when a company as powerful as Open AI enters the classroom, the questions are not just about learning. They are about data, control, privacy and trust. And in a country where privacy laws can impose penalties of up to

250 crore rupees, the cost of getting that balance wrong, could be massive. So what does Open AI really want from Indian schools? And what might Indian schools lose or gain by saying yes? Welcome to Daybreak, a business podcast from the Ken. I'm your host, Nick Dar Sharma, and I don't chase the new cycle. Instead, every day of the week, my colleague, Rachel Vargis and I will come to you with one business story that is worth understanding and worth your time. Today is Monday, the 13th of October. A month after that first call, a small team from OpenAI landed in India. By June, Arise had started running a pilot

just weeks after the company launched its study mode which is an interactive learning tool inside ChartGPD. Around 30 students from two Arise schools, one in Hyderabad and one in Delhi, were part of the beta test. And during that test, students, parents, teachers and the schools all had to sign non-disclosure agreements. For Open AI, that secrecy of course made sense, because it helped protect the product before its official release.

But for schools, this was difficult. Convincing parents, managing permissions and navigating legal risks became an administrative nightmare. So, had it not been for the resistance from these schools, Open AI would have wanted to pursue the NDA model for future partnerships too. But according to one Arise schoolhead, that would not have been feasible in hindsight. So, the company changed its approach. Instead of secret pilots, Open AI began signing open agreements with school. Under the New Deal, Arise schools would receive 10,000 free-charge-GPT-Go licenses for six months. The rollout is expected by November this year.

But the details matter. Open AI is not just offering access. It expects constant feedback from schools on what works and what doesn't. Whether that feedback comes through surveys, use logs or essays is still undecided. But schools are uneasy about it. Tumala told my colleague the Ken reporter Atul Krishna that teachers just don't have the time for all of this. Even more concerning is that the data collected during the partnership will not be shared back with schools. everything Open AI learns stays with Open AI.

And that is why so many schools are being cautious. Arise has agreed to distribute the licenses only among teachers, not students. The principal of an Arise school told the KEN that they are skeptical about officially telling students to use Chad GPD. Because if the digital personal data protection rules come in, they will become liable as schools if they have endorsed such products. The Indian government published the draft rules for Digital Data Protection Act in July. And according to these rules, if a company or an institution shares data with a third party without consent, it could face a fine up to 50 to 250 crore rupees. Now, despite this, Open AI is keen to eventually release licenses to students as well.

The thing is, though, this kind of back-in-forth is common when big tech works with schools. companies like Microsoft and Google have done similar things, giving free access to their products to encourage long-term use. Open AI seems to be following that same pattern. For more on why schools are still reluctant, stay tuned. Pranav Kotari, the chief executive of educational initiatives and ed tech company which is focused on personalized learning, told again that it is very hard to sell a product to schools, even if the product benefits learning. Kutari himself is a big fan of chat gpd. He says that it can customize learning for each student,

something that educators have been trying to do for decades. His company offers a product called MindSpark. It is essentially a chat gpd wrapper, a software which is built on top of chat gpt with specific parameters. It helps schools access customized and interactive syllabi. Now, from Kotari's two decades of experience working with students, he believes that learners catch concepts better when they can relate to the examples that are used in the lessons. But textbooks are mass-produced, so personalizing content for every student is difficult.

With chat GPT, MindSpark can finally address that problem. For example, if some students are struggling with algebra, teachers can use the software to create a lesson plan that focuses on those areas. Before chart GPD, that level of personalization required too much time and effort from already overworked teachers. It is a good concept, yes, but can it really be implemented in India? The government also appears supportive. The Central Board of Secondary Education or CBSE has introduced AI as a subject for higher classes and has partnered with IBM to provide training.

Open AI's steps in India are also similar to what it is doing in the United States. States, where it has tied up with Microsoft and Anthropic to provide free licenses and training. Still, schools are hesitant. Qutari told again that parents are focused on marks and college admissions. So, unless chat GPT can show that it improves those chances, schools will not prioritize it. An EY report says that over 60% of teachers in the U.S. and the UK already use AI for work. But in India, the adoption is slow. Kutari told us that no pedagogy-focused company in India has crossed 100 crores in revenue, except those dealing in textbooks.

Educational initiatives works with 6,000 schools across India and other countries, yet only about 200 have converted to paid customers. So, if Open AI's move is not about revenue, it may be about research, data, and attention. The idea is simple. Schools roll out chart GPD, teachers use it for lesson planning and assessments, students use it for learning, and Open AI in return gets training data. Another Arise founder explained it further.

They said what we teach in schools tends to be non-proprietary. That is why it becomes a great case for training the model. OpenEI has moved quickly in India, but education is a massive experiment. if the balance between access and liability tips the wrong way the company could learn how complex this experiment can become. As Tomola said, what changes with Gen AI is conversations. Otherwise, everything was a monologue, whether it was textbooks or YouTube. If monologue was enough, YouTube would have been the biggest university in the world.

Conversational learning can be a game changer. But for now, the conversation between Open AI and Indian schools has only begun. So, will Chad GPD truly change how India learns? Or will it just collect data while schools struggle to catch up? That is a billion-dollar question and one that India's classrooms may soon answer. Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of the Ken, India's first subscriber-focused business news platform. What you're listening to is just a small sample of a subscriber-only offering

and a full subscription offers daily, long-form feature stories, newsletters and a whole bunch of premium podcasts. To subscribe, head to the can.com and click on the red subscribe button on the top of the website. Today's episode was hosted and produced by my colleague Snitha Sharma and edited by Rajiv CN.