AI is set to revolutionize education – what business leaders can learn from this growth

After sixty years of dreaming and experimenting, we may be on the cusp of a revolution in education supported by technology. The Arizona State Board for Charter Schools recently approved it work and Unbound Academy is a new online school that will replace traditional teachers with AI teaching assistants, and promises to provide 2.4 times more education to students compared to the results of traditional schools.

This advance was not the result of some technological experiment – ​​rather, it represents the latest chapter in 60 years of computer-assisted research (CAI) to transform education through technology. This time, the evidence shows a real gain may be close. If this Academy and similar efforts are successful, it will mark the realization of a long-cherished dream.

The idea of ​​using computers to help students learn dates back to the 1950s, and first job -Programmed Logic for Automatic Teaching Operations (PLATO) – which appeared in 1961. PLATO provided interactive teaching with real-time feedback using terminals connected by telephone to time-sharing computer systems. Like other time-sharing systems, PLATO ultimately failed due to high costs.

Some serious, experiential learning experiments included Second Life – an online world where people participated as avatars – in the early 2000s. Although not a CAI tool, Second Life demonstrated the potential of an immersive learning environment. At least once 300 universities all over the world plus Stanford and Harvard taught courses or conducted research on the platform. Ultimately, Second Life suffered from a poor user interface (UI), technical requirements, learning curve and inability to scale.

The coming of generative AI in 2017 it changed a lot in CAI, with tools like Written and Photomath increase education and training. Essays, for example, uses AI to provide feedback on students’ writing, helping teachers manage critical tasks. Like report and Axios, Writable uses ChatGPT to provide feedback and visualizations that are sent to the teacher, who must review and edit them before providing feedback to students.

Such tools show the growth of AI in solving the long-standing problems of traditional education. In some US school districts, elementary schools have more than 40 students. If a teacher spends 10 minutes reading and critiquing a piece of writing from each student, that would be 400 minutes, or more than 6.6 hours outside of class time, to provide feedback on one piece of work. This seems unacceptable, especially when it comes to evaluating other student work. The promotion of technology helps to overcome this problem.

AI-powered training at scale

In a more general way, the Khan Academyled by founder Sal Khan, has been offering free online courses since 2008. In 2023, the company launched Khanmigoan AI tutor for students that integrates ChatGPT.

In a 2023 TED TalkKhan spoke about Khanmigo’s ability to improve student performance. In the article, he talked about 1984 paper called “The 2 Sigma Problem” by Professor Benjamin Bloom, then at the University of Chicago and Northwestern University.

An oft-cited paper reported that students who receive individualized instruction are two standard deviations better than those who receive only classroom instruction. However, Bloom knew that this teaching was impossible due to problems caused by other factors including the funding of public teachers. Bloom believed that the solution to this problem was to create more economic opportunities that could benefit from education.

Khan says that despite the use of AI-infused technology, Khanmigo can solve problems that are not there. Like noted in an article at Harvard Business School, Khan said that Khanmigo could be “the holy grail we’ve all been reading about in science fiction for years, about an AI that can emulate a human teacher.”

Some have pointed out the inaccuracies in Bloom’s paper, questioning the evidence to support his claims and dismissing the claims as implausible. In an attempt to “separate science fiction from science fact,” Paul von Hippel, professor and research fellow at the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas, he thought that the two deviant claims are both “exaggerated and simplistic.” However, there is no doubt that using technology can improve educational outcomes.

Good planning and interpersonal communication

When AI tools showing great promise in solving workplace problems, their adoption raises questions about the role of social interaction in learning. Which brings us back to Unbound Academy. Students spend two hours online each morning taking AI-powered lessons in math, reading, and science. Tools like Khanmigo and XL they will update the instructions and evaluate their progress, change the difficulty and content in real time to achieve better learning outcomes. The Charter program states that “this ensures that each student is challenged at his or her appropriate level, to avoid boredom or frustration.”

The Unbound Academy model greatly reduces the role of human teachers. Instead, human “leaders” provide emotional support and encouragement while also leading discussion on life skills. What will students lose by spending more of their learning time with AI instead of human teachers, and how will this model change the teaching profession?

The Unbound Academy model has already been used in several private schools and the results obtained are used to prove the benefits it claims. However, it is not clear how a computer-based model may affect a student’s ability to foster social connections outside of the traditional classroom. These articles and questions highlight how critical commercial schools like Unbound Academy need to look at how they describe their education.

Is the change here?

Academy is not the only way AI is used in schools. Khanmigo is being tested in 266 US school districts in grades three through 12. report and CBS, these programs are used by teachers and students. This pilot program provides a glimpse into how AI can be integrated into existing systems, helping teachers and students by improving lesson planning, saving time and providing real-time information on student progress.

CAI has come a long way from PLATO, although it has taken more than 60 years. If AI-driven models succeed, they could democratize access to higher education. While AI has the potential to widen existing disparities, it also offers unprecedented opportunities to bring better education to vulnerable populations.

As schools such as Unbound Academy are experimenting with educational models powered by AI pioneer Khanmigo, they are not only testing a new way of learning – they are challenging our basic assumptions about how learning happens and the role that human teachers should play in doing so. The results could change education for generations to come.

Gary Grossman is EVP of technology at Edelman is the global leader of the Edelman AI Center of Excellence.