Ah, the sweet smell of competition:
Freebies are flying on campus. Verified US students can snag two free months of ChatGPT Plus from March 31 to May 31, 2025 (chatgpt.com/students). And Google’s Gemini Advanced become freely available to US college students all the way through finals 2026 from April 17, 2025 (gemini.google/students/).
Why Tech Giants Love Students (and Their Data)?
Discounts to college students are the cheapest brand loyalty booster. By getting students accustomed to their ecosystem and tools (AI, cloud services, productivity apps), tech companies help shape the default workflows and preferences of the future workforce, creating built-in demand and fashion.
Moreover, accessing student interactions provides unique, often complex or niche, data that can refine AI models – conversations and queries from minds actively engaged in learning and research, providing a goldmine for training models on more sophisticated interactions.