BRAVE NEW WORDS

An early adopter of artificial intelligence demonstrates why educators should learn how to get the best out of it.

Khan is the founder and CEO of Khan Academy, a nonprofit organization focused on providing free online education and exploring education-related innovations, and the author of The One World Schoolhouse. When he was introduced to AI systems in the OpenAI research laboratory in 2022, he quickly grasped its capabilities. That was before the company released ChatGTP and GPT-4, but AI concepts were already making waves. Khan set about integrating AI into Khan Academy, with a series of experiments and brainstorming sessions to discover the best ways to implement the technology. He understood the downsides that generative AI could bring: the likelihood of cheating, the possibility that students could become dependent on it, and the potential for biased information. Consequently, he was not surprised when, after the public release of ChatGPT, some school districts banned it. However, like it or not, he notes, the AI genie is out of the bottle, and it will be a crucial part of the world that younger generations will inherit. The author explains how the Khan Academy developed answers to each problem, with input from students and parents. They established clear rules about transparency and citations, and they programmed the system not to merely supply answers, wherever possible, but to ask questions to help the student find their own solutions. The aim was to use AI as an interactive tutor rather than a go-to problem solver. This is interesting material laid out accessibly, making the book a good place to start for anyone with a stake in this field. Readers interested in further information should seek out the author’s thoughtful TED talk.

Khan provides a wealth of advice on connecting AI to education, and he writes with clarity, expertise, and optimism.