Premium ChatGPT comes to USC
Tomo Chien
November 13, 2025
Good morning. It’s Thursday, and these are the five USC, Los Angeles, and California stories you need to know for today.
1.
Students and employees will soon get access to a premium tier of ChatGPT under a USC enterprise subscription. It’s unclear how much the ChatGPT Edu plan will cost the school, though some students have long begged for it. Professors — not so much.
2.
The Big Ten athletic conference reportedly told USC that it must sign on to a controversial private equity deal that it opposes — or risk eventually being booted from the league. It was an escalation of a heated battle over a deal that could reshape how the Big Ten distributes revenue to its member schools.
3.
An atmospheric river is expected to douse LA this week with levels of rain typically seen over several months. Some evacuation warnings are set to begin this evening as forecasters project the storm will park itself over the region for several days.
4.
Waymo riders can now take robotaxis on LA freeways. The expansion could make the driverless service, which was previously confined to surface streets, significantly more useful in Waymo’s 120-square-mile LA service area.
5.
The long-awaited Lucas Museum in Exposition Park finally has an opening date: Sept. 22, 2026. The $1 billion narrative art museum features gorgeous green space and impossible architecture just across the street from USC. The LA Times got exclusive photos of the facility.