AI Tutor vs ChatGPT for Homework: What Every Parent Should Know

ChatGPT can answer almost any homework question in seconds. An AI tutor will not — deliberately. That single difference defines what each tool is actually for, and understanding it is the most important thing a parent can know before deciding which one their child uses.

What ChatGPT is and how students use it for homework

ChatGPT is a general-purpose large language model built by OpenAI. It can generate essays, solve maths problems, explain historical events, summarise texts, and produce almost any written output when given a prompt. Students who use it for homework typically ask it to write an answer directly — "write me an essay on the causes of the First World War" or "solve this algebra problem for me."

The output is often plausible and well-written. It is also frequently wrong in subtle ways, and when students submit it as their own work, they may not know it is wrong. More significantly, they have not learned anything.

The DfE's guidance on generative AI in education identifies this as the core concern: AI tools that complete tasks on behalf of students undermine the learning that assessments are designed to measure. Ofqual has flagged this in the context of GCSE assessment integrity — submitted work must be the student's own authentic effort.

What ChatGPT is good for:

Getting a quick explanation of an unfamiliar concept

Checking whether an answer approach is correct (if the student has already worked through it)

Exploring ideas for an essay before writing

Vocabulary and grammar checks on a student's own writing

What ChatGPT is not good for:

Completing homework tasks — this is academic dishonesty and transfers no learning

Reliable factual depth — it can confidently state incorrect information

Adapting to the specific UK exam board curriculum

Supporting a child who is struggling without creating dependency

What an AI tutor is and how it differs

An AI tutor is a purpose-built educational tool designed around pedagogical principles. The key difference from ChatGPT is intent: a good AI tutor is engineered to guide students toward answers through questions, not to provide answers directly.

This Socratic approach — named after the philosopher's method of learning through questioning — is how the best human tutors work. Instead of saying "the answer is 42," a Socratic AI tutor asks "what do you notice about these two numbers?" and waits for the student to reason. That reasoning is where the learning happens.

Purpose-built AI tutors for KS3 also carry specific curriculum knowledge: they know what AQA, Edexcel, and OCR expect at Key Stage 3, how exam questions are structured, and what common misconceptions Year 7, 8, and 9 students encounter in each subject.

What an AI tutor is good for:

Practising topics with adaptive questioning

Identifying and addressing specific misconceptions

Supporting revision with retrieval practice (being tested on what you know)

Building the skills to answer exam-style questions independently

What an AI tutor is not (or should not be):

A homework-completion tool — if the AI writes the answer, the session has failed

A replacement for class time — it supplements, it does not substitute

Side-by-side comparison

Criterion | ChatGPT (general) | Purpose-built AI tutor
Cost | Free (basic) / £20/month (Plus) | Typically £10–£20/month for KS3 products
Primary purpose | General text generation | Educational dialogue and skill-building
Will it write the homework for the student? | Yes, if asked | No — designed to prevent this
UK KS3 curriculum awareness | Limited and inconsistent | Core feature of purpose-built products
Adapts to the student's responses | Partially — it remembers within a conversation | Yes — adjusts difficulty, tone, and next questions
Factual reliability | Variable; can hallucinate confidently | Better in subject-specific products with constrained outputs
Safeguarding | Minimal built-in for children | Reputable products include child-appropriate safeguards
Academic integrity risk | High if used to complete tasks | Low if Socratic approach is enforced
Suitable for unmonitored use by a 13-year-old | Requires careful parental oversight | Designed for student-led use

The honest case for letting students use ChatGPT at all

Some parents ban ChatGPT outright. Others allow unrestricted use. Neither extreme serves students well.

The evidence from the Education Endowment Foundation suggests that digital technology can benefit learning when it supports active engagement — practice, retrieval, and feedback. ChatGPT can do this if the student uses it in a disciplined way: checking their own reasoning rather than outsourcing it. But this requires metacognitive habits that many KS3 students have not yet developed.

A practical middle ground: allow ChatGPT for concept exploration and checking, not for task completion. If a Year 8 student is stuck on what "osmosis" means, looking it up via ChatGPT is reasonable. Using ChatGPT to write the biology homework is not — and the school likely has policies making this explicit.

What the research says about AI and academic honesty

Ofqual's work on assessment integrity is clear that submitted coursework and controlled assessments must be the student's own work. Schools are increasingly using AI-detection tools and are adjusting assessment design to reduce the opportunity for AI submission. A student who relies on ChatGPT to write answers is building habits that will undermine them in Year 10 and 11 controlled conditions, when the AI is not available.

The DfE's departmental position on generative AI (published 2023, updated 2024) recommends that schools develop clear policies, and that AI tools should be used to support and extend learning — not to replace the student's own cognitive effort.

Which should your child use?

Use an AI tutor if your child needs regular, structured practice, revision support, or help with specific subject areas. A purpose-built AI tutor aligns with the curriculum, asks rather than tells, and builds the skills that translate to exam performance.

Use ChatGPT (with boundaries) if your child needs a quick concept explanation or a starting-point for their own thinking. Establish a clear household rule: ChatGPT helps you understand; it does not write for you.

Do not use ChatGPT as a homework-completion tool. The grades it produces are not your child's, and neither is the learning.

Frequently asked questions

Is ChatGPT cheating if my child uses it for homework?

It depends on how it is used. Most UK schools now have AI policies that classify submitting AI-generated work as a form of academic dishonesty. Using ChatGPT to understand a concept or check reasoning is generally acceptable. Asking it to write a paragraph, solve a problem, or produce any content that is then submitted as the student's own work typically violates school policy and risks a grade penalty or worse. Check your child's school's policy — most published theirs in 2024.

Can ChatGPT get GCSE-level answers wrong?

Yes, and it does — often in ways that are hard to spot. ChatGPT does not know what exam board your child is entered for, what the mark scheme expects, or how command words like "evaluate" or "analyse" are interpreted differently across AQA, Edexcel, and OCR. It can produce confident, well-structured answers that would receive low marks or lose specific marks in a real exam. Purpose-built AI tutors that are trained on UK specification content and mark scheme conventions are meaningfully more reliable.

What age can children use ChatGPT?

OpenAI's terms of service require users to be at least 13 years old for ChatGPT. For users aged 13–17, parental consent is required in many jurisdictions. Even with these minimum ages met, the platform is a general-purpose tool not designed for children, and has minimal safeguarding features compared with purpose-built educational products. Parents should apply appropriate oversight for KS3 students.

Are there AI tutors designed specifically for KS3?

Yes. Purpose-built AI tutoring products for UK KS3 students align their content to the national curriculum and main exam board specifications (AQA, Edexcel, OCR). They use Socratic questioning to guide students rather than giving answers, and include age-appropriate safeguarding. These are categorically different from general-purpose chatbots.

For a purpose-built Socratic AI tutor aligned to the KS3 curriculum in maths, science, English, and humanities, see aitutors.me.