ChatGPT EDU cost $3.1 million
Tomo Chien
January 22, 2026
Good morning. It’s Thursday, and these are the five USC, Los Angeles, and California stories you need to know for today.
1.
USC’s one-year ChatGPT EDU subscription cost $3.1 million, according to the school’s provost. The figure could serve as ammunition for critics of the subscription who have decried USC’s decision to purchase the AI tool after ordering mass layoffs.
2.
The student government announced this year’s presidential candidates, which means it’s time for our annual tradition of making fun of all of them. This year, though, there’s not much to work with. (Nobody is promising Raising Cane’s.) Still, this year’s race already has plenty of dubious pledges, painfully corny acronyms, and, of course, frat bros.
3.
Women now outnumber men in U.S. law, medical, and veterinary schools by substantial margins, marking a long-running shift that is transforming the demographics of high-end professions. The trend is largely due to a steady decline in men enrolling in college. “Men aren’t seeing higher education as valuable,” one academic said.
4.
A federal agent opened fire on a car in South LA yesterday during an immigration enforcement operation. The man in the car was not injured, and the Department of Homeland Security accused him of ramming an agent, without video evidence. DHS claimed an agent suffered an unspecified injury.
5.
A San Francisco Giants star was briefly detained by Customs and Border Protection at LAX after forgetting his travel documents in South Korea. Jung Hoo Lee’s agent insisted it was “not anything political or anything like that,” though the outfielder was only released when Rep. Nancy Pelosi and the Giants organization stepped in.
