The problem with general-purpose AI

ChatGPT is trained on internet-scale data, most of it American, British, or generic. It doesn't know what CAPS is. It hasn't seen your school's past papers. It doesn't understand how South African exams are structured or marked.

That means when a learner asks for help with a history essay or a physical sciences explanation, the AI gives an answer that sounds right but misses the mark, literally.

Where ChatGPT gets it wrong

Ask ChatGPT to explain a concept from your Grade 11 Life Sciences textbook. It might give you a decent answer. But ask it how many marks that explanation is worth, or what the examiner is looking for, and it guesses. Sometimes it's close. Often it's not.

This is dangerous because the AI sounds confident. Learners trust it. And then they walk into an exam expecting their ChatGPT-style answer to earn full marks, only to find out it doesn't match what CAPS requires.

CAPS is specific

South Africa's Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement outlines exactly what learners need to know, how they'll be tested, and what kind of answers earn marks. It's detailed, subject-specific, and different from curricula in other countries.

General AI tools don't account for this. They weren't trained on CAPS documents, DBE exemplars, or provincial past papers. They don't know the difference between a 2-mark and a 6-mark answer in a South African context.

What learners actually need

Learners need tools that understand the system they're being assessed in. That means:

  • Knowing how questions are phrased in NSC exams.
  • Understanding mark allocation and answer structure.
  • Giving feedback based on real CAPS criteria.

This is why Paperman exists. It's built specifically for the South African curriculum. It doesn't guess. It's trained on the material that matters.

AI can help, but only if it's aligned

We're not anti-AI. AI tutoring can be powerful. But only when it's calibrated for the learner's actual context. A tool trained on American AP exams won't help a matric learner in Limpopo.

If you're going to use AI to study, make sure it knows your curriculum. Otherwise, you're preparing for the wrong test.