Meet Khanmigo: the student tutor AI being tested in school districts

oldbrownhat · Dec 10, 2024

Anyone's kids/grandkids using the Khan Academy online tools? I'd run across it when looking up how to calculate something, but that was all. Still in development, it's being piloted in 266 schools from Grades 3-12.

AI is something I'm pretty leery of as there are so many reports of it being abused but this would seem to be promising if it's implemented properly.

This is a CBS 60 Minutes segment, about 14 mins. (Anyone watch Lesley Stahl's "Why are glasses so expensive?" from a dozen years ago?

)

Meet Khanmigo: the student tutor AI being tested in school districts | 60 Minutes - CBS News

Rudi · Dec 11, 2024

I don't like this AI thing.

oldbrownhat · Dec 11, 2024

Rudi said:
I don't like this AI thing.

I'm pretty sceptical as well - lots of opportunity for doing bad things, some of which are already in the news, often related to social media, where it is being found very hard to rein in. I have a healthy distrust of social media as well.

I sent this to a friend here and he commented:

Indeed, quite amazing, in a somewhat disconcerting way...! Are computers supposed to get this independently erudite?
They may, one day, decide (perhaps, accurately) that the human race is terribly flawed, and needs to be replaced...

As long as they don't become "independently erudite" but remain under responsible control, it may be OK. There have already been a few articles recently on concern about computers becoming self-aware, which could very well lead to this kind of dystopian nightmare! As the architect Mies van der Rohe said in the 1930's, "The devil's in the details". In this case, the neural networks.

But AI is already being used sucessfully for medical and other scientific research analysis, which I think is an area where it can legitimately be of benefit. I think it will be interesting to see how this particular application develops. My gf, who sent me the link, teaches biology at university, and constantly complains of the poor standard of education of many of her students. Perhaps this can help to improve primary & secondary education, given that students all have laptops now as "standard equipment" and can interact with the technology in a cooperative way and it can help them to THINK, rather than just parroting information. In the video, the students interviewed say it's really not possible to "bully" the system into just giving answers, but encourages them to process the information they are being given to create their own answers, which is how we learn.

I'm hoping there will be an update after the trial period is over and whether it is "ready for prime time."

DWalt · Dec 11, 2024

And then there is this from Google. No question the world will be dominated by AI and quantum computing within ten years. Meet Willow, our state-of-the-art quantum chip

oldbrownhat · Dec 11, 2024

DWalt said:
And then there is this from Google. No question the world will be dominated by AI and quantum computing within ten years. Meet Willow, our state-of-the-art quantum chip

Yes, I saw that. THAT is frightening

Remember years ago when there was a popular saying: "You can be replaced by a silicon chip"?

DWalt · Dec 11, 2024

oldbrownhat said:
I'm pretty sceptical as well - lots of opportunity for doing bad things, some of which are already in the news, often related to social media, where it is being found very hard to rein in. I have a healthy distrust of social media as well.

I sent this to a friend here and he commented:
Indeed, quite amazing, in a somewhat disconcerting way...! Are computers supposed to get this independently erudite?
They may, one day, decide (perhaps, accurately) that the human race is terribly flawed, and needs to be replaced...

As long as they don't become "independently erudite" but remain under responsible control, it may be OK. There have already been a few articles recently on concern about computers becoming self-aware, which could very well lead to this kind of dystopian nightmare! As the architect Mies van der Rohe said in the 1930's, "The devil's in the details". In this case, the neural networks.

But AI is already being used sucessfully for medical and other scientific research analysis, which I think is an area where it can legitimately be of benefit. I think it will be interesting to see how this particular application develops. My gf, who sent me the link, teaches biology at university, and constantly complains of the poor standard of education of many of her students. Perhaps this can help to improve primary & secondary education, given that students all have laptops now as "standard equipment" and can interact with the technology in a cooperative way and it can help them to THINK, rather than just parroting information. In the video, the students interviewed say it's really not possible to "bully" the system into just giving answers, but encourages them to process the information they are being given to create their own answers, which is how we learn.

I'm hoping there will be an update after thie trial period is over and whether it is "ready for prime time."

Some may have noticed that relatively recently, if you make a Google search for something, you will get an AI summary.

oldbrownhat · Dec 11, 2024

DWalt said:
Some may have noticed that relatively recently, if you make a Google search for something, you will get an AI summary.

Not necessarily, as Martha Stewart might say, "A Good Thing."

Amazon also gives AI summaries of reviews, which, given the variable quality of the reviews themselves, are rarely helpful. This kind of "mass market" implementation of AI is not something I think much of.

Tom S. · Dec 11, 2024

Many new technologies carry a good and bad side. Look back several hundred years to gunpowder. Good for putting food on the table bad for murdering someone. When cars first hit the scene, many were skeptical, even afraid of them. Today we would be hard pressed not to have them, yet over 30,000 people in the US die from auto accidents each year. Computers opened up the world of information to us while simultaneously opening the world of disinformation.

AI will be no different. Used properly, it will be a benefit and used improperly, it will be a curse.

DWalt · Dec 11, 2024

To me, the medical use of AI would seem to be the most valuable, for both diagnosis and treatment of various conditions. Feed in the lab tests, vitals, scans, etc. and get a probable diagnosis and treatment recommendations. There is vastly more medical information recorded than any individual doctor could come close to knowing.

Meet Khanmigo: the student tutor AI being tested in school districts

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