{"id":114152,"date":"2025-01-25T05:45:00","date_gmt":"2025-01-25T10:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.freethink.com\/?post_type=ftm_article&p=114152"},"modified":"2025-01-24T16:27:05","modified_gmt":"2025-01-24T21:27:05","slug":"khanmigo-ai-tutor","status":"publish","type":"ftm_article","link":"https:\/\/www.freethink.com\/consumer-tech\/khanmigo-ai-tutor","title":{"rendered":"Sal Khan wants to give every student on Earth a personal AI tutor"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This article is an installment of Future Explored<\/a>, a weekly guide to world-changing technology. You can get stories like this one straight to your inbox every Saturday morning by subscribing above.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s 2026. Your son is falling behind in biology, but money is too tight for a tutor. Too tight for a human<\/em> one, anyways. Thankfully, he\u2019s able to access a high-quality AI tutor that provides the kind of one-on-one help he needs to catch up with his classmates\u2014for free.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AI tutors<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

No two students learn in exactly the same way at exactly the same rate, but that\u2019s how they\u2019re taught in the average American classroom: a teacher presents a lesson, tests the class on it, and then moves on to the next lesson, regardless of whether every student fully understood the last one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because lessons often build upon one another, this approach makes it incredibly easy for a student to fall further and further behind in class. One-on-one instruction can help them get caught up, but teachers are often stretched too thin to provide it, and private tutors typically charge at least $25 per hour, putting them out of reach for many families.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tutors built on generative artificial intelligence<\/a> (AI)\u2014a type of AI that can generate high-quality text, images, videos, and more in response to user prompts\u2014could be the affordable alternative these students need.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

To find out how, let\u2019s explore the evolution of educational technology, the limitations of today\u2019s generative AIs, and the ancient Greek philosopher that\u2019s helping a popular educational nonprofit overcome them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Where we\u2019ve been<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\""EdTech<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Where we\u2019re going (maybe)<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Sal Khan is an expert in educational technology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since 2008, the nonprofit he founded, Khan Academy<\/a>, has created thousands of educational videos, lessons, and exercises on everything from pre-K reading to college-level calculus and then made them available for free online, often in multiple languages. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe got started with me tutoring my cousins,\u201d Khan told Freethink. \u201cEverything since then has really been about how we could leverage technology to approximate elements of what you could get with that one-on-one personalized tutoring.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We\u2019re at the cusp of using AI for probably the biggest positive transformation that education has ever seen.”<\/p>Sal Khan<\/cite><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In the summer of 2022, several months before ChatGPT<\/a> would bring generative AI into the public consciousness, OpenAI\u2019s Sam Altman<\/a> and Greg Brockman asked Khan if he\u2019d like to take a look at their newest generative AI model: GPT-4.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was the model that would come after<\/em> GPT-3.5 (the one powering the first version of ChatGPT), and Khan\u2019s team was among the first people in the world to get a look at it.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt really was a game-changer,\u201d says Khan. \u201cIt was able to surprisingly reason in ways that GPT-3 did not. Yes, it still made mistakes, but it could generate questions and give explanations in a very cogent way.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOne of the breakthroughs with GPT-4, even relative to GPT-3.5, was its steerability\u2014you can really prompt it to take on personas and act in ways that you think they should act\u2014so very quickly we started making prototypes of it acting as a tutor,\u201d he continues. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those efforts led to the creation of Khanmigo<\/a>, an AI-powered personal tutor and teaching assistant that Khan Academy began piloting in March 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re at the cusp of using AI for probably the biggest positive transformation that education has ever seen,\u201d Khan declared<\/a> during a TED Talk the following month, \u201cand the way we\u2019re going to do that is by giving every student on the planet an artificially intelligent but amazing personal tutor.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Khanmigo for students<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

While Khanmigo is built on futuristic technology, Khan Academy looked to a figure of the ancient past when designing its persona: Socrates<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rather than lecturing his students or directly answering their questions, the Greek philosopher would ask<\/em> questions that got them to think critically about a subject, and through a back-and-forth dialogue, they would learn. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Designing Khanmigo to emulate this teaching style has helped Khan Academy overcome one of the biggest drawbacks of incorporating generative AIs into education: It\u2019s really easy to use them to cheat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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“It’s easy to put a little wrapper around these models and call it a tutor, but they’re essentially like, ‘We\u2019ll do your homework for you.'”<\/p>\nSal Khan<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

If a student asks ChatGPT or another AI tutor<\/a> for help with an algebra problem, for example, it might just give them an answer. Because of its Socratic design, though, Khanmigo will instead ask the student what they<\/em> think is the first step to solving the problem and then go from there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt’s easy to put a little wrapper around these models and call it a tutor, but they’re essentially like, \u2018We\u2019ll do your homework for you,\u2019\u201d says Khan of some of the other AI tutors available today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This Socratic approach extends to Khanmigo Writing Coach<\/a>, a generative AI-based tool that Khan Academy developed specifically to assist with writing assignments. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Writing Coach can help students make sure they understand an essay prompt, guide them through creating an outline, and even provide feedback on their drafts, letting them know, for example, if their thesis isn\u2019t clear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What it can\u2019t <\/em>do is write anything for them, and if a student pastes 15+ words from a source outside Writing Coach into an essay, the section will be flagged for teacher review. This helps ensure that students don\u2019t have other AIs writing their essays for them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe consensus within Khan Academy is that Writing Coach is the most advanced part of Khan Academy,\u201d says Khan. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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