Feb 4 (Reuters) - Microsoft ( MSFT )-backed OpenAI said

on Tuesday it will roll out an education-specific version of its

chatbot to about 500,000 students and faculty at California

State University as it looks to expand its user base in the

academic sector and counter competition from rivals like

Alphabet.

The rollout will cover 23 campuses of the largest public

university system in the United States, enabling students to

access personalized tutoring and study guides through the

chatbot, while the faculty will be able to use it for

administrative tasks.

OpenAI has been

looking

to integrate ChatGPT into classrooms since 2023, even as

initial concerns about its potential use for cheating and

plagiarism had prompted some schools to consider bans.

Universities like the Wharton School of the University

of Pennsylvania, the University of Texas at Austin in the U.S.,

and the University of Oxford in the UK have already been using

ChatGPT Enterprise, prompting OpenAI to launch ChatGPT Edu in

May last year.

Rival Alphabet has already been expanding into the education

sector, where it has announced a $120 million investment fund

for AI education programs and plans to introduce its GenAI

chatbot Gemini to teen students' school-issued Google accounts.

In November, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer opened

London's first Google-funded AI university, which will provide

older teens with access to resources in artificial intelligence

and machine learning, as well as mentorship and expertise from

Google's AI company, DeepMind.