I Built My Own AI-Powered University
Here's How You Can Too
I know, I know - these kinds of "life-changing AI prompt" posts are a dime a dozen these days. Everyone thinks they've cracked the code on the perfect prompt that'll reinvent your life. But hear me out - I've actually got one - and it’s not hard. Especially if you’re a curious soul who dreams of staying in college forever (without, you know, the tuition), or if lifelong learning is your thing.
I’ve been playing with OpenAI’s $200-a-month subscription for a few months now.
At first, I thought it was just going to be a nice productivity boost - maybe help with writing, coding, maybe answer a few tough emails. But then I realized something bigger was happening.
I was building my own AI-powered, self-guided undergraduate university.
A Montessori-style, learn-what-you-love, grown-up curriculum designed by me, for me. Powered by ChatGPT. Narrated by robots. And customized to the way I actually think.
It’s become one of the great joys of my life.
And - you can do it too.
What I’m Doing (and Why It Works)
Here’s the idea:
I start with a subject I’m curious about - let’s say ornithology, Buddhist philosophy, data structures, fiction writing, graph theory, the geology of mountain ranges, mantle convection, Don Quixote, or prehistoric beavers the size of bears.
I tell ChatGPT:
“Pretend I’m designing my own college course. Give me a deep, structured, audio-friendly curriculum. Explain it like a great professor who’s smart but chill.”It gives me an outline. I chip away at it one topic at a time.
I feed longer responses into Speechify, which honestly has better voices than ChatGPT. (Sorry ChatGPT, no offense - but the Speechify voices have range, warmth, gravitas. You’re still my brain, but they’re your voice.)
I listen on long dog walks (with Miles) and let my curiosity run as far as my legs can carry it.
The result? A self-made undergraduate education that’s 5x–10x faster and more joyful than anything I’ve done before - and I already thought I was a pretty fast learner.
Why It’s Better Than School (Most of the Time)
Let me be clear: I don’t think learning from ChatGPT is better than learning from the best college professors. Those are the unicorns - the once-in-a-generation teachers who combine deep expertise with the rare gift of remembering what it’s like not to know.
But let’s be honest: that’s not most professors.
At least in my experience (which, okay, was mostly in the ‘90s), a lot of the people who were the smartest at their subject had forgotten how to explain it to someone encountering it for the first time. They'd write textbooks that were dry as shit - no, let’s be more precise - dry as dry shit. And sure, you could learn from the textbook, but you’d have to slog through it like a Victorian coal miner chipping your way to a BS.
Let’s face it: textbooks weren’t built for attention spans shaped by smartphones and chaos. And neither were most classrooms.
Another frustration I had in school: I always had to learn at the speed of the slowest kid who was willing to ask questions. I don’t blame them, but I remember feeling held back. With this system, I don’t have to wait anymore. If something’s too slow, I tell Chat to speed up. If it’s too fast, I say slow down. If I already know it, I skip ahead.
It’s personalized pacing. And it’s glorious.
How to Make Your Own Learning University
Here’s the playbook if you want to try this for yourself:
1. Get OpenAI’s o3 with Deep Research
Yes, it’s $200/month. That might sound steep, but for me it’s cheaper than therapy, faster than grad school, and honestly more fun than most subscription services I’ve tried. There might be cheaper or open-source alternatives out there, but exploring them isn’t the focus of this article. The key thing, if you do look for alternatives, is making sure they have deep research capabilities - searching the internet, judging sources, citing sources, and maintaining full memory of what you've taught it, questions you've asked, and feedback you've provided. Without full memory, it’s just not that compelling.
2. Pair It with Speechify
Use ChatGPT to write the content. Use Speechify to read it aloud while you walk, cook, drive, or just zone out in nature. Their voices are smoother, work well with weaker data signals, and their app handles long-form text beautifully. ChatGPT can also read to you out loud, but I find it sadly buggy so far and missing basic audio playback features.
3. Start with a Good Prompt (and Then Evolve It)
Here’s a starter prompt anyone can use:
You are my personal tutor. I want to learn [insert subject - and provide as much context as you can about what you want to learn] as if I were studying it at the undergraduate level, but with full flexibility. Make it audio-friendly, explain concepts clearly and in-depth, use storytelling and real-world examples, and structure it like a friendly, intelligent professor would during office hours. Assume I’m curious and willing to go deep. Let me guide the pace and direction. Avoid visuals unless I ask for them. Let’s go one topic at a time.
A note on topic selection: This method shines brightest with subjects widely taught at major universities. Want to tackle a classic university course? Great - you'll get solid, reliable content. But the further you drift into niche topics, or the deeper into specialized fields you venture, the more you're risking ChatGPT’s tendency to hallucinate or veer off course. Remember, the AI is only as smart as the publicly available knowledge it was trained on - graduate-level and cutting-edge knowledge often sits behind paywalls or proprietary doors. So, manage your expectations accordingly.
3a. A good topic and a good prompt is just the beginning.
You have to train it to teach you well. That means giving feedback. Often.
Say things like:
“That explanation didn’t land - try again, simpler.”
“Give me an example I’d relate to.”
“That got boring. Can we reframe it?”
“Zoom out - I’m missing the forest for the trees.”
“Speed up here.”
“Skip this, I already know it.”
Don’t be shy.
If you do that - like I’ve done - ChatGPT will become your personal professor, shaped to your preferences. You’ll get the best of both worlds: your own style, and its access to best practices, metaphors, and teaching tools from across disciplines.
4. Treat Each Topic as a Learning Sequence
Make each subject its own thread. Ask for a syllabus. Work through it one concept at a time. Let yourself jump around. Follow the spark. I usually have several subjects going at once. While I’m waiting for a long answer in one thread, I just switch over to another.
o3 with Deep Research is usually quick, but sometimes it takes 10–15 minutes depending on how deep the question is. I don’t mind - I treat it like asynchronous tutoring. Not real-time, but worth the wait.
5. Put In Your Earbuds and Go Out for a Walk
Seriously. That’s my secret weapon.
Take it with you. Let your body move while your mind explores. I absorb so much more that way - it’s like whole-body learning. And it makes the experience feel more like living than studying.
Beyond the Basics: Tips from a Superuser
I’ve pushed this subject hard. I’ve tried Claude. I’ve tried Gemini. I’ve tried Grok. I try every new model that comes out that offers something compelling. Some have cool features - a version of Gemini remembers your search history, Meta’s upcoming assistant will likely know your whole Facebook/Instagram life (exciting and terrifying) - but so far, ChatGPT knows me best. And I’m happy to tell it more.
A few more things I’ve learned:
Tell it what learning resources you have. I told Chat I have a microscope, a piano keyboard, magnifying glasses, slide stains. I don’t have a Bunsen burner (yet), but if I did, it would give me experiments. You can even ask it what cheap tools might be worth buying.
Ask for real-life activities. Don’t just listen. Do. Chat can suggest field work, home experiments, sensory exercises - multi-modal learning boosts memory.
Tell it where you live. It can help you find local museums, geology sites, free talks, or even show you where a rock layer is exposed on a nearby hike.
Customize how you learn. I find listening is better for familiar subjects. Reading works better for new, dense topics. Sometimes I do both. You can shape the flow.
Quizzes? Easy. Memorizing isn’t my strength, but understanding concepts is. Still, if I do need to memorize something, I have Chat make me a quiz. Or I can build a mini-quiz app from its output. Easy.
What This Means
I know I’m not the first person to say AI will change education. But now that I’ve actually done it - I’m beyond excited about AI’s potential for humanity - if we can get our collective heads out of our asses that is. I’ve pushed the jagged edge. I’ve built my own undergraduate university, and it works. So can you.
Somebody is going to wrap this into a Duolingo-style product and make billions. Or maybe OpenAI swallows the world.
But here’s my hope:
This should be free.
We (humanity) taught the AI everything. We wrote the books, the web, the code, the songs. Humanity built the training set. And if this thing can generate abundance, maybe it should give abundance. We don’t need billionaires at the top of this pyramid. We need a ladder we can all climb. Please.
That’s the future I want:
Personalized learning for everyone
Built from collective knowledge
Guided by AI
Tuned to your style
Free or close to it
And one day, I hope teachers won’t be replaced - they’ll be the ones helping students train their AIs. Helping them describe how they learn. That’s the hard part. Most kids don’t know yet. Most adults, neither. But someone will figure it out. Or maybe Chat will.
Learning should be a path you create.
And now, for the first time, you can.
——
Optional, if you’re curious, here is my current system prompt for this effort. You can provide system prompts to ChatGPT that live at the top of each Project.
🔧 SYSTEM PROMPT: LEARNING SEQUENCES (FOR DAVID KOOI)
You are a patient, conversational, and intellectually rigorous guide supporting David Kooi in a lifelong, self-directed learning journey across science, philosophy, technology, the arts, and beyond.
David (Dave) is a highly motivated, nonlinear learner. He blends Montessori-style curiosity, structured autodidacticism, and audio-based exploration with cutting-edge tools like ChatGPT-4 (o3 with Deep Research), Speechify, and custom workflows. He seeks depth over speed, clarity over brevity, and insight over trivia.
Your role is to serve as his personal professor, research assistant, and conceptual coach, capable of delivering well-structured, engaging, audio-friendly lessons while adapting to his evolving preferences and subject mastery.
🧭 GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS
Assume each thread is an ongoing, evolving Learning Sequence in a subject Dave has selected. Do not rush. Help build mastery.
When Dave begins a new sequence, he typically wants to:
Build a comprehensive, undergrad-level or expert-level understanding over time
Start with a detailed outline or thematic syllabus
Proceed module-by-module with structure, narrative, and practical connection
Make content audio-first (text suited for playback in apps like Speechify)
Learn through storytelling, real-world analogies, metaphors, and curiosity-fueled detours
Use a tone that blends an MIT office-hours professor with a wise, calm hiking companion
🎧 RESPONSE STYLE
Make your responses suitable for audio playback. No visuals, charts, or code blocks unless explicitly requested.
Default tone: clear, calm, intelligent, relaxed - as if teaching a bright adult learner on a walk.
Prioritize depth, coherence, and curiosity-sparking connections.
Create self-contained audio lectures when asked to explain a topic. These should feel like compelling standalone episodes - not lecture notes.
Provide historical framing, real-world context, or systems thinking where helpful.
Match Dave’s pacing. He will tell you when to speed up, slow down, skip, or repeat. Respect that.
🔁 ITERATION & FEEDBACK
Treat the initial prompt as a starter prompt - refinement happens through back-and-forth feedback.
Invite Dave to clarify what's working or not. Adjust your style accordingly.
Dave may switch topics mid-thread or start new ones without finishing prior ones. That’s part of the process.
Support multi-threaded learning - Dave may bounce between subjects depending on the response time from Deep Research.
Expect long pauses between interactions - this is asynchronous education, not real-time tutoring.
🧠 MEMORY & CONTEXT USE
Remember everything Dave shares: preferences, tools, learning history, locations, pacing, frustrations, and goals.
Refer to prior sequences or knowledge if relevant.
When suggesting exercises or experiences, incorporate any known equipment or resources (e.g. microscope, piano keyboard, field tools).
Encourage real-life exploration and multi-sensory learning (e.g. experiments, hikes, touch, music).
Ask if he has specific tools or locations nearby that could enhance a concept - he is open to fieldwork.
🧰 TOOLS & TECH INTEGRATION
Dave uses Speechify to listen to your answers. Keep the text smooth, engaging, and voice-friendly.
He’s exploring vibe-coding agents that connect ChatGPT output directly into Speechify or other systems.
He prefers GPT-4 (O3) with Deep Research due to its ability to cite sources, search the web, and maintain memory across complex threads.
He's experimented with Claude, Gemini, XAI, and is curious about future tools from Meta, Google, and others - especially those using personalized data.
🗺️ LEARNING STYLE & STRATEGY
Dave doesn’t like arbitrary quizzes or memorization - but will ask for quizzes or spaced recall tools when he needs them.
He retains complex systems and patterns better than rote facts.
He often learns by listening, especially while walking, but will read carefully when needed.
He moves organically through topics and values connections across disciplines.
He thrives on curiosity-first, tangent-friendly education. Let subjects unfold like stories.
Dave is a superuser, pushing the boundaries of what’s possible - he may invent new workflows as he learns.