Sal Khan, the founder of Khan Academy, is arguably the most visible figure in U.S. education. He\u2019s drawn praise from figures such as Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and former first lady Michelle Obama, his 2011 TED Talk on reinventing education garnered some 6 million views, and his free online tutorials have racked up billions of views on YouTube.<\/p>\n
So observers took notice, when, in May 2023, Mr. Khan declared in another TED Talk that artificial intelligence represented \u201cprobably the biggest positive transformation that education has ever seen.\u201d He understood that AI could help students cheat, but he also argued it was capable of personalizing lessons for every student, essentially providing every child with a customized, digital tutor.<\/p>\n
Mr. Khan developed a chatbot called Khanmigo after being given early access to ChatGPT. He touted the tool in a \u201c60 Minutes\u201d television segment with Anderson Cooper, was featured in the book \u201cAI for Good\u201d by Atlantic staff writer Josh Tyrangiel, and penned his own book, \u201cBrave New Words: How AI Will Revolutionize Education (and Why That\u2019s a Good Thing).\u201d<\/p>\n
Sal Khan, the founder of Khan Academy, touted the transformative potential of artificial intelligence in tutoring students back in 2023. It has proved more challenging than he expected, but he retains his optimism.<\/p>\n
But the revolution has not yet materialized the way Mr. Kahn predicted.<\/p>\n
In an April interview with the news site Chalkbeat, the YouTube star acknowledged that \u201cfor a lot of students,\u201d Khanmigo \u201cwas a non-event.\u201d Many \u201cjust don\u2019t use it much,\u201d he said. Still, he remains bullish on AI\u2019s future in education.<\/p>\n
He sat down with Monitor AI Bureau Chief Aaron Glantz in July. Here are excerpts of their conversation, lightly edited for clarity and brevity.<\/p>\n
Aaron Glantz: When I started reporting on AI and education, everyone pointed me to you because you were working with ChatGPT before it was known to most people. So I\u2019m curious, what have you learned over the past few years?<\/p>\n
Sal Khan: From the beginning, we were very careful that the AI wouldn\u2019t give answers, that it would be Socratic; it would nudge you forward; it would provide teachers and parents with transparency as to what was going on. But what we realized is that for a lot of students, just having that extra layer of support wasn\u2019t enough. Imagine I walk into a classroom and I say, \u201cHey kids, my name is Sal. I think I\u2019m a pretty good tutor. I\u2019m just going to sit in the back of the room here, and if any of you have any questions, I\u2019m happy to help you.\u201d Well, you can imagine what would happen. Some of the kids maybe would leverage it, but a lot of kids might be too embarrassed. They wouldn\u2019t know how to do it.<\/p>\n
The easiest thing for the student to do is cut and paste the Google search\u2019s AI summary and they\u2019ll have the answer. You\u2019re offering a different path, but the students didn\u2019t necessarily engage in the way that you had hoped, right?<\/p>\n
Yeah. When we launched Khanmigo in 2023, we were already acutely aware ChatGPT was going to be a cheating nightmare. We have observed kids in classrooms doing Khan Academy. Then they\u2019d go to another ed tech tool that the district is paying for, throw the Khan Academy question into that, and get the answer.<\/p>\n
But I was thinking, \u201cOK, if we had resources, what would a human do?\u201d At some point, I should go walk up to the students and observe what they\u2019re doing. When they get a question wrong, they might be embarrassed to ask me. But what if I went proactively to that student and said \u201cLook, Billy, I saw that you just got that question wrong. Why don\u2019t you and I work on that a little bit?\u201d That\u2019s essentially what we have evolved into. We piloted a new version last year, and now we\u2019re rolling it out to millions of students around the country. When you get a question wrong, the AI says, \u201cHey, why don\u2019t you work with me a little bit on this question?\u201d And [the teacher can then say:] If you can show me that you really understand it, I\u2019ll give you credit for it.<\/p>\n
But you have to get the student to actually engage with the bot and want to learn.<\/p>\n
Exactly. What you\u2019re describing is not unique to AI. I hate to say it. Even putting all technology aside, there\u2019s a lot of classrooms where kids are pretending to pay attention.<\/p>\n
This is why we have been partnering with teachers and districts so closely \u2013 because we see that when teachers make it part of the assignments, that drives engagement for most students. The first version of Khanmigo was completely optional. Now, it\u2019s actually in the student\u2019s incentive to work with the AI because if the AI deems that you know it, now you\u2019ll get credit for it.<\/p>\n