How classroom AI Khanmigo can help students in emotional distress
Early one morning in Hobart, Indiana, Abigail, a high school student studying chemistry, sat across from what might be the next big technological innovation in education.
Khan rice crackersis an artificial intelligence platform designed by the education nonprofit Khan Academy that is like Socrates for laptops: It answers questions with questions, imploring students to use their own knowledge to guide them to fully understood, contextualized answers.
“I asked it… what are three examples of acid?” Abigail explained to “60 Minutes” reporter Anderson Cooper.
After providing more examples, Camigo listed the different types of acids found in common everyday drinks.
It then asked: “Can you think of any household items that might contain acid?”
“Khanmigo will guide you to the answer, and at the same time it will ask you a question to help you figure it out,” Cooper told “60 Minutes.”
Khan Academy founder Sal Khan got a sneak peek at the underlying technology behind OpenAI Chat GPT in 2022.
He told Cooper he immediately worried it could be used to cheat, such as writing essays for students. But he also saw incredible potential: an AI mentor with “guardrails.”
“To support students and give them more feedback…support all the lesson planning and progress report writing that teachers spend hours a week doing,” Khan said.
Khanmigo is now being piloted in 266 U.S. school districts with grades three through 12.
Teachers use Khanmigo to develop lesson plans, review papers, and plan classroom activities. Students can use it to get help when they are struggling with homework, fine-tuning their writing, or solving practice questions.
“I’m interested in it from a journalistic standpoint, but also just from a personal standpoint,” Cooper told “60 Minutes.”
“I have a 2-year-old and a 4-year-old. My 4-year-old is going to kindergarten next year.”
Cooper told Khan that it would be a game-changer if an AI tutor could help his son with his upper-grade math and science homework.
“That’s our hope. Although I will say … a lot of parents would be embarrassed if they forget things … to study with your kids,” Khan said.
One of the unique features that Khanmigo offers teachers is a usage tool that allows them to view a log of student conversations and activity with Khanmigo.
When students ask Khanmigo a question in chat or draft a paper in the Writing Coach app, teachers can see the actions they took, when the action occurred, and how long the student spent on the specific task. Task.
“It really provides a window for adults to supervise kids on homework and work processes in a way that never really existed before,” Cooper told Working Overtime.
“I think for some students, some kids, it might feel intrusive.”
Hobart High School students told “60 Minutes” they heard this sentiment from some of their classmates.
“Everything you type is sent to your teacher… I think that’s really scary for students,” one student said.
Hobart High School District Superintendent Peggy Buffington believes this kind of oversight can save lives.
“One of the pieces of feedback we gave Sal (Khan) was a safety net. ‘What if there’s a student who’s struggling with some emotional issues? Maybe suicidal ideation?'” she told Cooper.
At the request of schools, Khan Academy created a feature that detects if students are talking about hurting themselves or others and then immediately notifies teachers. If necessary, a mental health counselor can step in to help.
“Did you ever actually encounter a situation where Camigo raised red flags about the emotional well-being of students?” Cooper asked.
Buffington said she did.
“You see a lot of this in writing … and then immediately, the teacher sees it,” Buffington responded. “It’s just another level of awareness that maybe we don’t know students are internalizing…it could save lives.”
Cooper told Overtime that he spoke with Khan about the privacy concerns of the data.
“Obviously, this type of information is very sensitive,” Cooper said.
Khan told 60 Minutes that Khan Academy will never sell the data collected by Khanmigo, and they will only use it internally to make Khanmigo better.
“Anyone under the age of 18…if someone talks about self-harm, hurting others, or seems to be in a bad situation, or…they try to write an inappropriate story using artificial intelligence…(we are doing this)) ask the teacher ( and) managers raising the issue so they can take action if needed,” Khan said.
Khanmigo is still a work in progress.
“There are still some issues that need to be worked out,” Cooper told Overtime.
Students at Hobart High School told 60 Minutes Khan Migo still makes mistakes, but Khan said things are continuing to get better.
“It’s not possible to put the genie back in the bottle…I don’t think there’s any doubt it’s already here,” Cooper told Out of Time.
“I think tech companies certainly have a responsibility to have appropriate ethics and safeguards in place.”
“But parents should also be involved and understand as much as possible what their children are doing.”
Cooper said that as a father of two young boys, the potential benefits of this technology were obvious to him.
“An AI mentor that stays with them in their home, in their school… they can consult with and learn from… I mean, the potential is incredible.”
The video above was produced by Will Croxton. It is edited by Sean Kelly.
