Introduction
In the world right now, there are many use cases for AI. In fact, almost every industry – if not every industry – can benefit from AI in some way. This is no less true with education, but with education, there are some other problems that are unique to this field. For example, there is a massive problem with students using AI to do their assignments for them and to cheat. However, Sal Khan, the founder of Khan Academy(a learning site with over 135 million users according to prosperityforamerica.org), argues against that. Not only does he believe that there are ways to mitigate this but combined with the positive use cases of AI in the education industry, he believes that AI can be a massive change for good in this field specifically. He details this and more in his Ted Talk found here.
Summary of Article
Mr. Khan firsts starts out by citing the two-sigma problem, which states that if we can give personal 1 to 1 tutoring to all students we can increase their, as the study called it, “summative achievement scores” by 2 standard deviations. Mr. Khan contextualizes it very nicely for us he says: “That could take your average student and turn them into an exceptional student [and] it could take your below-average student and turn them into an above average-student”. Mr. Khan then attests to the fact that the way we do this is through AI. He proves this by displaying the AI on his site(Khan Academy) and showing not only how it helps students learn across a variety of subjects, but also how it will not tell the student the answer. Khanmigo (the AI on the Khan Academy Site), tutors students, letting them ask questions, helping them write essays, and giving them feedback while still hinting at the solution and not just telling them. It can also help teachers plan lessons to ensure that the students not only understand but also have fun while doing it. Another thing about Khanmigo that is incredibly wild is the fact that it can be inanimate objects in literature, it took the form of Jay Gatsby in The Great Gatsby and students were able to ask the character questions to understand the text in more detail and to internalize and contextualize it more. One more thing that Khanmigo can do is it can be a guidance counselor for students helping them achieve their personal and professional goals, and giving them a judgment-free zone to go to someone with their problems. The way that Khanmigo does all of this, and is extremely successful at it, is that it “thinks” and then speaks. Mr. Khan shows the audience some of the text that Khanmigo generated but was not shown to the student because it was “thinking” about what to say to help the student the most. The talk then closes with Mr. Khan coming back to the fact that this is what he believes will solve the two-sigma problem – and with use cases like that it’s hard to believe that it won’t.
My Take
Overall it was a great ted talk. I was extremely fascinated by not only what it can do but also how it does it. How the AI “thinks” to itself before actually saying anything to the student to ensure that it makes as few mistakes as possible and helps the student to their maximum potential. When it was thinking to itself it planned out the response as well. It first did the problem by itself to figure out the right answer, then it figured out where the student went wrong, and then it “talked” to itself and said “The student got a different answer than I did, but do not tell them they made a mistake. Instead, ask them to explain how they got to that step.” This way of “talking” to itself really helps the student because it makes the model less prone to mistakes. It also helps the model get better ways to help the student because it thought of asking the student to explain which helps the student catch their own mistake which then leads to better retention. Also, at the end of the presentation, Mr. Khan showcased many use cases of AI in this one field. It was amazing to me how many use cases of AI can take place on this one site in this one field. I also take an interest in the AI model because I use the site so much, it is an extremely useful site so this talk hit so close to home. With the edition of this new AI tool, the possibilities are endless for learning for students because you can ask how many questions you want for however long and about any topic that just pertains to you.
Conclusion
All in all, this was an amazing Ted Talk that I really enjoyed. It detailed so many use cases of AI in a field that is so relevant to everyone. I highly recommend you check it out when you get the time(the video can be found here)!