Her school blocked ChatGPT. This 17-year-old built an AI to help people find jobs

Navya Tuteja, a 17-year-old student at a selective US high school, has built an AI startup after studying in an environment where ChatGPT and similar tools are blocked. Her platform Raaha helps neurodivergent job seekers assess job listings, and has already attracted more than 1,000 users and 20,000 listings.

In Short

• Seventeen-year-old Navya Tuteja launched Raaha, an AI tool for neurodivergent job seekers
• Her platform has crossed 1,000 users and 20,000 job listings within just two months
• Her school blocks ChatGPT, but Tuteja says responsible AI use matters more than bans

A school ban on ChatGPT might sound like a roadblock for a teenager obsessed with AI. For Navya Tuteja, it became something else: a lesson in when to use the technology and when to put it away.

The 17-year-old senior at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Virginia has now launched Raaha, a free AI-powered platform designed to help neurodivergent job seekers assess whether a job listing is a good fit before applying.

Within two months, the platform had attracted more than 1,000 users and 20,000 job listings, according to a report by Fortune.

The idea came partly from Tuteja's mother, who is hard of hearing, and from what she noticed about job advertisements. They often tell candidates what employers want, but offer little sense of what the actual working experience might be like.

Raaha attempts to bridge that gap by scoring job listings across several factors, giving candidates another way to judge a role before spending hours on an application.

CHATGPT WAS BLOCKED AT SCHOOL

Tuteja is also an unusual AI user because the school where she studies blocks ChatGPT, Claude and similar tools on its Wi-Fi.

Rather than seeing the restriction as entirely negative, she believes it forced her to build habits that became useful later.

“It made me use it in school way less,” she said. “So I guess, as annoying as it was, it was still good, in a way," she told Fortune.

Tuteja is president of her school's AI club, but she says she keeps AI away from her own learning, particularly when preparing for exams.

She wrote Raaha's underlying algorithm herself and used AI mainly for more mechanical tasks such as improving the website's design.

Her broader view is more nuanced than simply being pro or anti-AI.

“I don’t think banning it is the solution,” she said. “I think you have to regulate it in the right way.”

SHE BUILT MORE THAN A JOB TOOL

Raaha -- which you can try out for free on the raaha.ai website -- is not Tuteja's only project.

She also created Legible, a tool designed to turn complex special-education documents, including IEPs and 504 plans, into simpler language for families.

The project came from another problem she noticed: AI summaries can strip away the sources parents need to verify information.

That led Tuteja to develop a proposed transparency standard called Traceable Accessibility, which she has discussed with state lawmakers and the US Department of Education.

Her approach is strikingly practical for someone still in high school: find a problem, build something, then contact the people who might actually use or regulate it.

She also runs Empower InvisAbilities, a student-led nonprofit focused on raising awareness of neurodiversity and invisible disabilities through workshops, educator toolkits and student chapters worldwide.

HER STARTUP IS STILL FREE

Tuteja bootstrapped Raaha and is keeping it free while she builds its user base.

Her eventual business model could involve employers and workforce organisations paying to use the platform or improve their job listings.

College is still part of her plan. But if Raaha continues growing, she says she would consider running the company full-time.

There is also a distinctly personal side to the experiment.

Her parents, Deepti and Rohit Tuteja, have encouraged her to use technology without letting it become a shortcut. Their message has remained simple: AI can help, but the thinking still has to be hers.

That may be the most interesting part of Tuteja's story. Her school tried to solve the AI problem by blocking access. She came away believing the harder challenge is teaching people how to use it responsibly.

And while doing that, she has already built a company of her own.

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