Sal Khan on AI in Education

Last week, we had a very impactful podcast about AI in education. Sal Khan, founder of Khan Academy, alongside Reid Hoffman, co-founder of Linkedin, discussed the impacts of GenAI and the future of education.

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We’ve had so many discussions about how ChatGPT is amplifying students, for better or worse. However, very few real discussions have taken place about how GenAI can amplify educators. Perhaps one of the reasons is the educator's resistance to adopting anything AI. Reid put it bluntly:

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“Teachers say, ‘I don’t want to change the way we were doing it for the last 50 years,’ but A) you have to B) it’s going to be magical”.

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It’s also why Sal is more excited for educators than for the students with AI. Personally, I believe the real benefit of GenAI is improving the accuracy and efficiency of repetitive, manual processes.

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I’ve talked about how educators are overworked, but there is always an urgency for them to do more. During the pandemic, educators were asked to provide personalized learning and engage students more. Now with ChatGPT, we are asking them to implement more complex assessments and formative learning. These things are going to give students a better experience but when will it be “the straw that breaks the camel’s back”?

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One view that Sal and Reid mention and one that I believe also, is the efficiency gains from an educator’s perspective. On average, educators spend 10-15 hours per week grading papers, developing rubrics, etc on top of their teaching duties.

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AI won’t take away their work, but it’s going to make it a whole lot easier. What if we can turn 15 hours into 1 hour?

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That’s a lot of weekends and Friday evenings educators are getting back. And they NEED that time and energy back.

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1) To help with attrition in education

2) Spend that energy to support their students better

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A relaxing weekend means more positivity and energy to support students the next week - a win-win!

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My biggest hope is that educators don’t automatically assume AI will degrade the quality of education they provide. If you want to watch the whole podcast, click here.

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Chris Du

CEO, TimelyGrader.ai