How I Built This with Guy Raz – When AI is your personal tutor with Sal Khan of Khan Academy

Intro

In this episode of “How I Built This with Guy Raz,” Guy interviews Sal Khan, the founder of Khan Academy, about the role of AI in education. They discuss how the pandemic has transformed education, the impact of Khan Academy during this time, and the partnership with OpenAI to develop GPT-4 for personalized learning. Sal Khan also shares insights into the development of their AI tutoring platform, Khan Migo, and the challenges and opportunities it presents.

Main Takeaways

The Pandemic’s Impact on Education

• The pandemic has changed education forever, with schools moving online and digital platforms becoming indispensable.
• Khan Academy saw a spike in usage during the pandemic, with traffic increasing from 30 million to 90 million learning minutes per day within a week.
• Screen time fatigue and a lack of motivation led to a normalization of usage, with people just trying to tread water.
• Studies show that student performance in reading and math fell significantly during the pandemic, but Khan Academy helped keep students on track.

Accelerating Plans and Providing Human Support

• Students who used Khan Academy for an average of 15 minutes a week saw no COVID learning loss, while those who used it for 30-60 minutes accelerated almost 40% faster than pre-pandemic norms.
• Khan Academy saw a surge in users during the pandemic, which accelerated their plans to address unfinished learning and provide human support.
• They created back-to-grade-level courses and a sister nonprofit called Schoolhouse.world to provide real human support for free.

Partnership with OpenAI and GPT-4

• In 2022, Khan Academy was approached by Sam Altman from OpenAI to partner with them on GPT-4, which they were skeptical about at first but were impressed with its ability to answer an AP biology question and explain its reasoning.
• Khan Academy partnered with OpenAI to use GPT-4 to create educational content that is grounded in factual knowledge and can help students learn in a more engaging and personalized way.
• GPT-4 can generate questions and role play as a human tutor, which impressed the team.

Khan Migo: AI Tutoring Platform

• Khan Academy developed an AI called CONMEGO, which is in beta and integrated into their platform with guardrails in place to mitigate risks.
• CONMEGO is designed to be accurate and not hallucinate, and it logs all conversations and monitors them with a second AI to notify parents and teachers of any gray areas.
• Teachers can use CONMEGO for lesson planning and academic performance optimization, and studies show that one-on-one tutoring is the gold standard for improving student scores and grades.
• Khan Academy’s AI interface aims to bridge the gap between students who receive one-on-one tutoring and those who don’t, emulating aspects of personalized tutoring.

Challenges and Future Plans

• Khan Academy’s new AI tutoring platform, Khan Migo, is being developed to address concerns from school districts that have banned chat GPT from school-issued laptops.
• Khan Migo is seen as a safer alternative to chat GPT because it provides oversight by adults and can flag suspicious areas with the AI.
• Kanmigo can be useful for in-class writing activities, where teachers can assign a topic and students can work on it with Kanmigo’s assistance.
• Khan Academy is exploring the possibility of making Kanmigo a commercial product that can be licensed to schools to ensure sustainability.

Summary

The Pandemic’s Impact on Education

The COVID-19 pandemic forced schools to transition to online learning, making digital platforms like Khan Academy essential. Khan Academy experienced a significant increase in usage during the pandemic, helping students stay on track despite the challenges of remote learning. However, studies show that overall student performance in reading and math declined during this time.

Accelerating Plans and Providing Human Support

Khan Academy responded to the surge in users by accelerating their plans to address unfinished learning and provide human support. They created back-to-grade-level courses and launched Schoolhouse.world, a sister nonprofit offering free real human support. The data showed that even 15 minutes of Khan Academy usage per week prevented COVID learning loss, while 30-60 minutes accelerated learning beyond pre-pandemic norms.

Partnership with OpenAI and GPT-4

Initially skeptical, Khan Academy partnered with OpenAI to use GPT-4 for creating engaging and personalized educational content. GPT-4’s ability to answer questions and role play as a human tutor impressed the team. This partnership aims to enhance the learning experience by grounding educational content in factual knowledge and leveraging AI for interactive and personalized learning.

Khan Migo: AI Tutoring Platform

Khan Academy developed CONMEGO, an AI tutoring platform integrated into their system. CONMEGO aims to emulate aspects of one-on-one tutoring, providing hints, feedback, and pedagogically strong responses to student queries. It addresses the “two sigma problem” by bridging the gap between students who receive personalized tutoring and those who don’t. CONMEGO is designed to be accurate, monitored for gray areas, and can be used by teachers for lesson planning and academic optimization.

Challenges and Future Plans

Khan Academy is developing Khan Migo as a safer alternative to chat GPT, addressing concerns from school districts that have banned chat GPT from school-issued laptops. The platform provides oversight by adults and flags suspicious areas. It can be used for in-class writing activities, reporting progress and areas of difficulty to teachers. The goal is to create a commercial product that can be licensed to schools, ensuring sustainability for Khan Academy.

Conclusion

The partnership between Khan Academy and OpenAI to leverage GPT-4 for personalized learning represents an exciting development in education. Khan Academy’s AI tutoring platform, Khan Migo, aims to bridge the gap between personalized tutoring and mass education, providing students with engaging and immersive learning experiences. While challenges and debates about sustainability and commercialization exist, Khan Academy remains committed to its mission of providing free world-class education to anyone, anywhere.