USC among top college users of ChatGPT, renews OpenAI contract for $2.5M

As a result, students will now find guardrails on how often they can use the more advanced features of this developing technology as they return to campus this fall.

“I can tell you the (USC) president loves it. The provost and the deans are like, go get ‘em. Our faculty are really at the cutting edge of using these tools,” Bible said. “We didn’t want to stop that.”

But as the school inked a new contract with ChatGPT, developer OpenAI had to make some changes.

Some 25,000 USC students and employees have signed up for a school ChatGPT Enterprise account.

That comes to about half of the school’s combined 40,000 students and more than 8,000 staff.

Most of the use involved basic prompts entered into the artificial intelligence-powered chatbot. Users of the platform’s free version can make 10 of those types of queries every five hours.

But between 3,000 and 5,000 users, about three-fifths of them students, used ChatGPT to conduct what’s known as “deep research,” Bible said.

For those users, USC had to pump the brakes on what was unfettered use.

“We wanted to make sure that, certainly, general users still had what they needed, but that the heavy users still could experiment and learn,” Bible said.

The deep research function is for complex, multi-step tasks, according to OpenAI.

For example, a business student studying whether a new product might do well on the market can ask the platform to conduct a complete competitive analysis against existing products. Or graduate students working on their thesis or dissertation could ask it to run a review of all previously published books and journal articles related to their topic.

“We had everything from science and business faculty conducting very detailed analytical experiments with large data sets to students using Codex, the software development platform OpenAI put out, to develop code and practice their troubleshooting for coursework or projects,” Bible said.

USC’s usage was up there with colleges such as Arizona State University and schools in the California and Pennsylvania state systems, Bible said.

Luckily, because USC was an early adopter of OpenAI’s college program, the technology company was willing to forgive the $1 million bill these heavy users had racked up above its one-year contract.

USC signs $1.5M contract with OpenAI to train students, faculty on responsible use

Instead, the company kept USC to the $1.5 million originally agreed upon for 1 million credits.

“They did not want to lose us,” Bible said. “We are not only a user, but we are pushing the envelope, and I think it’s helping them figure out the best way to work with any other university. Because if we have the challenge with these credits and the use of the different deep research areas, every research university ultimately will.

“OpenAI has been using our growth and our opportunities to help guide the way, quite frankly, as they position themselves in the higher ed market,” he added.

This year, the school will pay $2.5 million for the license and 40 million credits.

The new sole-source contract is for one year, starting with the fall semester.

As to why the contract didn’t go through the normal procurement process, Bible said the school looked at rates offered by other platforms, such as Claude and Gemini, and the costs were much higher.

“Plus, our faculty and students were already deeply embedded in (ChatGPT),” he said.

That reliance on sole-source also could change next year, Bible added.

Under the new system, USC students will each be allowed 60 credits a month. That’s enough for one “deep research” prompt and creation of two images, according to OpenAI.

Faculty will get 500 credits a month by default.

And the dean of each college or administrator of each department also will have a bucket of extra credits they can dole out if a professor puts in a special request. Deans also will receive monthly usage reports, Bible said, so if there are any unused credits, they can reallocate them to more heavy users.

A button in the platform allows students to put in individual requests to their professors for extra credits if they have a project due that requires them.

Clemson becomes second SC university eyeing Open AI contract. Here’s how schools are using the tech.

Starting next month, USC’s IT department is opening up a help desk, manned by students with specialized training who can answer questions by phone, online or in person about how to use credits efficiently to stay below the new limits.

And, all freshmen will receive AI fluency training as part of their entry-level university 101 class this fall.

Plus, USC’s journalism and communications school is hosting a conference Oct. 9-10 about how newsrooms, corporate communications and marketing agencies are using AI.

“Our goal is to create meaningful conversations that help professionals, educators and students better understand how AI is reshaping journalism, advertising and public relations while reinforcing the importance of creativity, ethics and human judgment,” dean Tom Reichert said in a statement.

Three student teams also will have the chance to earn up to $7,500 in a competition using artificial intelligence “to solve a real-world communications problem.”

While USC was the first in the state to adopt the technology, Clemson University also signed a $3 million, one-year contract with ChatGPT in February.

So far, the Upstate school has not run into any issues with availability of credits, according to spokesman Joe Galbraith.

At Clemson, the school is “investing in deeper, custom AI capabilities that go beyond what other universities have purchased, positioning the campus to lead in teaching, operations, and research innovation,” according to a filing with the state’s procurement office.

Last fall, Galbraith said those added tools are why Clemson would spend twice what the technology company originally charged USC. He has not yet responded to questions sent earlier this week seeking details on credits in the contract and usage.