AI is not your replacement — it is an assistant, a really good assistant
AI has been around for decades, and for a long time it was seen as a pipe dream, not something that would be realized anytime soon. Like any new technology that comes out, early AI had significant media hype but had limited applications. When it didn’t live up to the hype, people became doubtful about the powers of AI. This is how people felt about the internet in 2000. Skeptics were scoffing that people weren’t using it for anything useful. The early growth was all from big companies using it internally, not from ordinary consumers. Search engines were just glorified directories, like the Yellow Pages or Yahoo! Then the internet bubble burst in 2000, and the Nasdaq index lost 80% of its value.
There was talk that the internet would transform everything, but it turned out to be mostly hot air. People wondered if it would ever amount to anything. But then came iPhone and countless applications. Suddenly everyone is using the internet all the time, and it has transformed everything. The AI hype cycle has come and gone several times before, but this time is different. At present, AI technologies are mature enough to start delivering on their potential. The fact that AI algorithms have been used in autonomous vehicles, chatbots and in other real-world applications for some time now means that we can leverage these learning algorithms for educational purposes as well.
I am convinced that AI will disrupt education the same way it has disrupted other industries such as transportation and healthcare. Powered by new deep learning techniques, AI will allow educators to personalize teaching and learning approaches, improve efficiency and help scale up high-quality education at lower cost than ever before. It will democratize education by making it accessible to even more people around the globe.
This article will provide some examples of how AI will transform the next billion people by making personalized education accessible. The examples are mainly in education domain, which I am very familiar with, but many of them can be applied to other fields as well.
Companies working towards this goal
AI’s greatest impact on education will likely be in personalized learning. This is true both because of the large amount of data that personalized systems can draw on and because of the need to engage students who are motivated at different levels and in different ways.
The big question here is not whether we can do it, but whether we can do it affordably, such that the vast majority of people living in poor countries have access to the same quality of education that people in rich countries currently take for granted.
AI is already having an impact on education at scale with companies like DreamBox Learning, which has served over 50 million students in more than 20 countries, and Knewton, which has worked with over 8,000 schools across the globe. The results are dramatic — DreamBox improved students’ test scores by an average of 49 percent and the graduation rate by 12 percent, while Knewton saved its customers millions of dollars in excess printed materials and teacher time. Several innovative applications are already making high-quality, affordable education available to people who would otherwise be unable to access it.
Companies like India-based Embibe use personalized learning programs to helps students improve their scores by focusing on individual weaknesses through adaptive review, providing guidance by building customized study plans based on past performance and offering motivation through gamification features. Embibe has partnerships with over 300 schools in India including IITs, NITs, IIMs, CBSE schools and Government Schools. The Embibe platform is used by millions of students across India for school and competitive exams and it covers more than 600 subjects, 5 languages and 30+ exams
The company has also been able to provide its services at 40% cost of the average tutoring center, through utilization of technology and an automation-first approach. The company is powered by Embibe’s proprietary AI engine, which is capable of delivering 2–3 times higher impact on learning outcomes compared to the industry benchmarks.
AI is your assistant!
We’re built to dislike change and we’re afraid of it because we don’t always know what it means. For the world, for ourselves. We hear terms like artificial intelligence and robotics and think, “I’m going to lose my job.”
The most impactful thing teachers do is getting students ready for the next level. AI can provide a progression path for students, so that as they go from elementary school to middle school, to high school and beyond, their path is always moving along with them. This kind of personalization is incredibly difficult any single human to manage at even a small scale. AI, on the other hand, is perfect for platformizing the wisdom of good ol’ organic intelligence.
Another way AI can help education is by doing a lot of the things that teachers have to do today — assessments, grading tests, providing reports and feedback on student progress and performance. I think teachers will be able to focus more attention on helping students rather than simply keeping track of how they’re doing.
AI can learn from the data that teachers are feeding it — what works well, what doesn’t work well — and make better decisions about how to proceed in the future. I think that’s very valuable in education. A lot of teachers will be freed up so they can focus on higher-order thinking skills.
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ByteLearn does just this. ByteLearn uses AI to break down math problems into an easy-to-follow format so that students can understand them better and help them learn how to solve it on their own. All students have to do is snap a photo of the problem they’re struggling with, and Byte (their AI mascot, featured below) will provide a step by step solution. In addition to breaking down complex word problems, their AI also knows geometry and graphing problems.
ByteLearn automatically creates custom math homework for students and eliminates the need for teachers to create and grade math homework by hand. It provides automatic grading for math questions and customized feedback for every student. Teachers can quickly identify strengths and weaknesses of their students, allowing them to provide more targeted support in class and at home. With the time teachers will save, they can focus on inspiring and connecting with students. And this is just the beginning
Among the other impacts of AI on education are:
Simplified and Translated Content: Many tutorials exist in English only, which excludes the majority of India’s population from accessing valuable educational resources. One company, Unacademy, has built an AI platform that provides simplified and translated content for non-English speakers. The AI can convert any content for the entire world. Now learners from all over the world will have access to content that they previously wouldn’t have been able to understand. This doesn’t even the playing field, but it certainly makes it more fair.
On the student facing side, we have a lot of content. But we don’t have a good way to curate the content. Learners may struggle when figuring out where to start or where to get the best and most accurate information from. AI can help in creating a personalized path for each individual to get started with the basics and go through many different courses, taking them across different experiences and helping them learn from those experiences.
Closing thoughts
AI is here to stay. Trends since the COVID-19 pandemic started has clearly shown this to be true. Whether it was to cut costs, utilize time more efficiently with less workers, or simply to speed up the work being done, companies are shifting towards the adoption of analytics and AI. A PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) report on Global Artifical Intelligence found that 86% of companies utilize AI as mainstream technology
The capacity for all human beings to access and interact with education is one of the most powerful forces for individual and societal development. Education is a foundational element of social structure, and it is the primary means by which we can improve the lives of billions of people around the world who lack access to opportunity.
We envision a world where every kid gets the personal attention needed to excel in school.
For more information about what I said in this article and on AI across the map, check out these awesome companies and articles below:
DeepMind — What if solving one problem could unlock solutions to thousands more?
Unacademy — India’s largest learning platform
EMBIBE — The most powerful AI-powered learning platform
How Is AI Used In Education — Real World Examples Of Today And A Peek Into The Future
https://www.pwc.com/gx/en/issues/analytics/assets/pwc-ai-analysis-sizing-the-prize-report.pdf
