Gary’s Q&A

Listener question & Gary’s response · Transcript passage

Kevin O’Keefe asks Gary as a teacher, I’m constantly struggling over AI. And I teach Second Grade where they’re not yet exposed to it. Yet in 20 years, they clearly will be living in a different world when it comes to learning. There’s so much that we can leverage using this powerful new tool in terms of learning and it being positive yet at the same time it could be a crutch with students and the public at large using it in a way that could erode our cognitive abilities. With all your research into learning for your book and without giving too much away, what do you see as the future of learning? ?

When AI systems first went public, no one was ready for it. Kids found them right away and used them to do their homework and to write papers, before their teachers knew what was happening. Many teachers have already adjusted for this by returning to in-class essays written in long hand and other means of evaluating students that are AI-proof.

Basically, like other tools, AI can be used to make us better or to make us worse.

Having AI write a paper for you is an example of making us worse. There is nothing that is gained by having AI do this work for you.

However, just like with treadmills or gym equipment, AI can make you stronger if you use it correctly. In fact, I think if used correctly, AI can be the greatest advance in human learning the world has ever seen.

Here is some of the research I’ve been doing for my book…

The question of what is the best way for people to learn has been well known for a while. In 1984, an educational researcher named Benjamin Bloom identified a system of learning that was a full two standard deviations better than regular classroom instruction. That is an astounding improvement. An average person using this method could perform at the 98th percentile of someone who received normal classroom instruction.

What is this magic method? Individual tutoring. Individual tutoring lets the student learn at their own pace, get all of their questions answered personally, and allows the instructor to teach for mastery, meaning you don’t move on until the student has mastered the subject. There are no Bs or Cs. This isn’t just after-school tutoring. This is full-time personalized instruction.

Various studies have produced different estimates of the benefits of individual instruction, but they all point in the same direction.

There is, of course, a problem with this that might jump out at you immediately. You can’t really scale individual tutoring for thousands or millions of people. Bloom called this the “sigma 2 problem.”

The first real tool we have that can solve the sigma 2 problem is AI. Right now, as I speak, some kids, the bright and curious ones, are figuring out that with AI, YouTube videos, and even podcasts, they can basically speedrun school. They can cover an entire semester-long course in just a few weeks.

If you don’t believe me, try this yourself. Go to your favorite AI program and tell it you want it to tutor you in something you know very little about. Ask it the dumbest questions you have that you might otherwise be embarrassed to ask someone. Ask it to explain it to you like you are 10 or 5 years old if necessary.

AI is now capable of passing the bar and medical board exams, and it is now solving unsolved problems in mathematics. In a recent panel of theoretical physicists, 100% of whom were using AI to assist them in their research.

The current system of schooling isn’t set up for this world.

However, there is a catch to this. You have to want to learn. If you have no desire to learn and are not curious, then all the technology in the world will not be able to help you. There are schools that are experimenting with this currently, and the results so far are extremely promising.

So my advice for a 2nd-grade teacher is to stoke their curiosity and make sure they have the basics of reading and writing. Then in a few years, give them the tools to really allow them to run with their desire to learn.