Welcome to the era of Virtual AI Tutors

If you’re a lifelong learner, chances are you’ve taken an online course or two over the years. But the next time you take an online course, you might enjoy a more personalized experience, thanks to genetic artificial intelligence. Because in this age of ChatGPT and other AI-building tools, online course providers are increasingly using genetic AI to deliver a better, more adaptive experience to online learners.

In this article, we’ll explore how two providers, Khan Academy and Udacity, have embraced genetic AI technology to improve online learning.

Khan Academy’s Khanmigo assistant helps deepen learning

Khan Academy is a non-profit organization with a mission to provide free education to students of all ages anywhere in the world. To fulfill this mission, Khan Academy partnered with OpenAI to create Khanmigo, a virtual teacher for students that can, among other things, ask each student personalized questions to encourage deeper learning.

Every student is unique. And one of the promising benefits of online learning is that the learning journey can be personalized to each student’s understanding of the subject. Some people need more help understanding a concept before they can move on, for example. But achieving this kind of personalization on a mass scale has proven difficult, which is where genetic artificial intelligence comes into play. Using OpenAI’s large GPT-4 language model, Khan Academy can provide exactly the kind of personalized support and instruction students need. As Kristen DiCerbo, Chief Learning Officer at Khan Academy, put it on, “We believe GPT-4 opens new frontiers in education. Many people have dreamed about this kind of technology for a long time.”

One of the things that makes GPT-4 so transformative is its ability to understand and formulate free-form questions and prompts in natural language. It facilitates a natural back-and-forth conversation, in other words, just like a human conversation—like a conversation between a student and a teacher in a physical classroom. In online terms, this feature can be used to ask each student personalized questions, measure their progress, and drive deeper learning. Questions like, “What if…?” or “Why did you give that answer?” This helps ensure that students not only get the question right, but also fully understand the underlying concepts.

Interestingly, the Khanmigo virtual teacher can also act as a classroom assistant for teachers in traditional education settings. Indeed, Khan Academy is testing ways teachers could use technology in classrooms – for example, to create learning materials and classroom prompts. This, again, would help teachers tailor learning to each individual student.

Udacity’s Chatbot teacher can engage with thousands of students simultaneously

Udacity is another online course provider that uses OpenAI’s GPT-4 to create a virtual, on-demand AI trainer. As Udacity explains, one of the challenges of online learning is how to provide personalized guidance and support when people need it most – that is, when they are in the learning flow and facing difficult problems. Udacity’s virtual tutor chatbot meets this need by providing detailed explanations and instructions tailored to each individual student. The virtual teacher can also be used to summarize concepts, provide deeper questions and alternative explanations upon request, and even translate educational material into other languages.

The AI ​​teacher can handle thousands of interactions simultaneously, providing personalized feedback and responses to each student. But Udacity says the chatbot tutor is a “real-time supplement to our human mentors” and not a replacement for human advisors, who are a vital part of Udacity’s learning process. This is an important point to note: genetic AI can help improve learning in a wide range of contexts, but it will not eliminate the need for human teachers and mentors.

In summary, genetic AI enables online learning providers to deliver a better learning experience for students. In the future, we can expect more providers to introduce AI tools designed to deepen understanding, aid personalized learning and make online learning more fun. It’s an exciting new era of smart virtual teachers.