⚾ Play ball! Baseball fans might have noticed that new rules, notably a pitch clock akin to basketball’s shot clock, have reduced the average length of games from over 3 hours to just under 2 hours and 40 minutes.

Could faster, more engaging play help America’s pastime recapture a young audience?

Time will tell.

Today, we'll discuss how Sal Khan, the founder of Khan Academy, believes artificial intelligence could revolutionize education for the better.

All this, and more, in just 4 minutes to read.

— Matthew

QUOTE OF THE DAY

"We’re at the cusp of using AI for probably the biggest positive transformation that education has ever seen."

— Sal Khan

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ENHANCING THE EDUCATION SYSTEM

Can AI save education?

In recent months, New York City schools have banned ChatGPT amid cheating worries. Many other districts have followed suit. Headlines have read, “Alarmed by A.I. Chatbots, Universities Start Revamping How They Teach” and “ChatGPT and the Death of Education.”

Parents, teachers, and administrations have lamented that artificial intelligence tools are damaging education. Rather than learn how to solve problems or write essays, students quickly receive AI-generated answers through platforms such as ChatGPT.

But Khan Academy founder Sal Khan argues that AI could “save education.” Khan believes artificial intelligence could spark the greatest transformation in education. He says there are immense opportunities for students and educators to collaborate with AI tools, including the potential of a personal AI tutor for every student and an AI teaching assistant for every teacher.

“We’re at the cusp of using AI for probably the biggest positive transformation that education has ever seen,” he said in his 2023 TED talk this spring.

The “Two Sigma Problem”

Benjamin Bloom’s 1984 “Two Sigma” study highlights the benefits of one-to-one tutoring, which resulted in a two-standard deviation improvement in students’ performance. Bloom referred to this finding as the “Two Sigma Problem” since providing one-to-one tutoring to all students has long been unattainable because of cost and scalability issues.

Khan shared how AI has the potential to scale this tutoring in a relatively low-cost way. It can also provide personalized instruction to students globally with the help of an AI-powered assistant. During his talk, Sal gave a live demo of Khan Academy’s new AI-powered guide, Khanmigo, which he believes will solve the “Two Sigma Problem.”

The AI doesn’t write for you; it can write with you. The student will write two sentences, then the AI will write two sentences. They collaborate rather than compete.

“This is just the very tip of the iceberg of where this can actually go,” Khan said.

Assistants for all

Soon, Khan believes nearly every student on the planet will have an AI personal tutor. Every teacher will have an amazing AI teaching assistant. If a student says, “Tell me the answer,” the tool won’t do it. Instead, it’ll ask: “Can you explain your thought process?”

It can even identify the misconception in the student’s mind about a given math problem.

There aren’t a lot of computing teachers out there, Khan noted, and sometimes he can’t help his students as well as he’d like. That’s where the AI comes in.

It doesn’t get tired or hungry. It hardly makes mistakes. It can answer questions, quiz you, or give you ancillary ideas. It can help young elementary or advanced students pursuing their master’s degrees.

Chat with a literary character

In one example, a student writes in the prompt: “I would love to meet Jay Gatsby.”

“Ah, splendid choice, old sport!” the AI says. “I am now Jay Gatsby, the enigmatic millionaire from F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic novel, “The Great Gatsby.”

Then the student asks Gatsby why he repeatedly stares at the green light off in the distance.

“Ah, the green light, old sport! It’s a symbol of my dreams and desires, you see…I gaze at it longingly, as it represents my yearning for the past and my hope to reunite with Daisy…Now, tell me, have you ever had a dream or desire that seemed just out of reach?”

The student later apologized for taking so much of the AI’s time during their conversation.

Healthy debate

You could talk to historical figures and engage in debates with AI. Should we cancel student debt? What are solutions to climate change? How can a school board operate on a tight budget?

Students who have used this tool have said, “This is amazing to be able to fine-tune my arguments without fearing judgment. It makes me that much more confident to go into the classroom and really participate.”

Writing with you, not for you

The AI is becoming smart enough to know when not to do work or show answers to students. One writing prompt, for instance, can say, “Would you like to write this awesome story together? Let’s do it.”

With the AI's guidance, you can choose a topic, theme, plot, and characters.

Other tools for reading comprehension, some even add questions to articles, such as Steve Jobs’ famous Stanford commencement speech. “What does the word ‘relented’ mean as it’s used in paragraph 2?” the AI asks.

For teachers

Teachers can ask AI for engaging lesson hooks, how to divide the classroom, how to drive engagement among quieter students, and how to help students struggling with the material. AI will soon create lesson plans, progress reports, and completed grading tasks.

In short: Teachers can rely on AI to do the grunt work of grading and lesson planning so that they can spend that saved time in human interactions.

A comprehensive AI tutor

Instead of worrying about students using AI to cheat, Khan said we should focus on the positive use cases. Khanmigo not only detects students’ mistakes but also identifies misconceptions in their understanding and provides effective feedback.

Khan Academy has integrated Chap GPT4 into its platform, and it acts as a personalized tutor for each student. His examples bring GAI's potential to life for both the student and the teacher.

The technology could be most beneficial in schools with a high student-to-teacher ratio (key issue: the school and students would need the infrastructure to enable its use). In those instances, the personalization engine is a game changer.

“We all have to fight like hell for the positive use cases,” Khan said.

What’s to come

-Interactive reading comprehension

-Essay drafting and feedback tools

-AI memory for long-lasting “tutor” and “teaching assistant” interactions

-Narrative-based student progress reports

-Goal setting and study “advisory”

-Voice-based interaction

-AI guidance counselors, career coaches, advisors, life coaches

The bottom line

Google and the internet overall have enabled billions of people to learn anything they want at their fingertips. YouTube and online courses have democratized education, making knowledge available to more people than ever before. This is a step further.

While traditional colleges and in-person courses may always be valuable, AI education can amplify in-person learning. It also can educate people from under-resourced communities worldwide and level the playing field.

“This to me is a very, very, very big deal, and it’s not just in math,” Khan said.

Dive deeper

Here’s Khan’s full discussion on why he believes AI could enhance education for all.

See you next time!

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