Sal Khan of Khan Academy gives a TED talk on how AI could transform education, with a personal tutor for every student and a teaching assistant for every teacher. He demos Khanmigo, including features where the AI reasons before responding.
Why Hacker News points people here: Cited in AI-and-education threads as the optimistic case and demo for AI tutoring, and as a source on Khan Academy's LLM approach.
“Sal Khan gave a good Ted Talk on his thoughts around AI in Education.”HN comment, 2024
“Sal Khan provides a more optimistic take and demo”
Optimistic take and demo of AI tutoring
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You are just giving them ChatGPT with a bit of prompt engineering, and evaluating them on math problems, which we know LLMs make errors on because they are not calculators. You aren't putting in the effort needed to build a real tutor and learning assistant. I would not extrapolate from these results There are also a lot of things that can come in before you build a full on tutor. One example is being able to tailor word problems (transform the nouns) to subjects interesting to the particular student. They could also be used to help understand where students are struggling. We are still at the early phases of useful AI, optimism is more appreciated, especially as contemporary times have become so pessimistic Sal Khan provides a more optimistic take and demo: this video
RecommendsverdvermJul 2024
“Sal Khan gave a good Ted Talk on his thoughts around AI in Education.”
Good talk with demos of what an AI tutor could be
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Sal Khan gave a good Ted Talk on his thoughts around AI in Education. Some pretty cool demos in there showing what a tutor could be like and other opportunities this video How AI Could Save (Not Destroy) Education | Sal Khan --- edit: Khanmigo has its own site now link
RecommendsxnxJul 2025
“With the right system prompt, AI can be a patient, understanding, encouraging, non-judgemental tutor that adapts and moves at the student's pace.”
Case that AI tutors can be patient and affordable
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> GenAI is a threat to student learning and wellbeing. This blanket dismissal is not going to age well, and reads like a profession lashing out. With the right system prompt, AI can be a patient, understanding, encouraging, non-judgemental tutor that adapts and moves at the student's pace. Most students can not afford that type of human tutor, but an AI one could be free or very affordable. "How AI Could Save (Not Destroy) Education" ( this video ) from Sal Khan of Khan Academy
Cites itjstx1May 2023
“that we can dramatically improve its ability in math and tutoring if we allow the AI to think before it speaks”
Source for Khan Academy letting the AI think before speaking
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> We realized (...) that we can dramatically improve its ability in math and tutoring if we allow the AI to think before it speaks. This is from Sal Khan's TED talk on how they're integrating ChatGPT into Khan Academy - this video
Cites itdhon_May 2023
“It's light on details but might be a starting point.”
Mentions chatbot with internal monologue, light on details
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I just watched a Ted talk by Sal Kahn (founder of Kahn academy) where he talks about giving their chat bot an internal monologue. It's light on details but might be a starting point. this video
Cites itunshavedyakMay 2023
“Khan Academy's use of LLMs was interesting”
Blurb about AI prompting itself and judging its own output
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I don't know how true it is vs how much PR it is, but Khan Academy's use of LLMs was interesting in that they apparently craft a prompt from the AI itself. Ie a two step process where the AI generates the steps, and then the AI reasons about the result of the steps to attempt and judge the accuracy of the data. This was just a blurb from the Ted talk[1], but i'd be interested in seeing a slightly more in depth explanation about this strategy. Made me wonder if you could have an recursive cycle of thinking. Where the "AI" prompts itself, reasons on the output, and does that repeatedly with guards such that it will stop if it doesn't judge anymore advancement. [1]: this video
Cites itxnxMay 2024
“I share Sal Khan's (of Khan Academy) optimism for the possibilities for AI in education”
Sal Khan's optimism for AI in education
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I share Sal Khan's (of Khan Academy) optimism for the possibilities for AI in education so I'm glad to see Google working on this too. Like a lot of areas, AI won't be better than the best teachers, but most of us weren't taught by the best teacher. If AI can create a tireless, patient, knowledgeable teacher, that will be a tremendous asset to humanity. How AI Could Save (Not Destroy) Education: this video
Cites itEGregMay 2024
“A few years ago I saw Salman Khan give a talk about AI solving the Two Sigma problem”
Khan on AI solving the two sigma tutoring problem
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Sorry can someone explain to me why the teachers are needed at all in these subjects given the Khan Academy? A few years ago I saw Salman Khan give a talk about AI solving the Two Sigma problem, obviating the need for teachers: this video
Cites ittoomuchtodoFeb 2026
“Sal Khan, the founder and CEO of Khan Academy, did a TED talk [3] on this.”
Khan's TED talk on this AI tutoring model predates the school
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They're copying one of Khan Academy's implementation models [1] and rebranding it as AI. It's certainly not new besides the "help yourself to AI" part (which, full disclosure, Khan Academy is working on as well with their "Khanmigo" assistant [2]). Sal Khan, the founder and CEO of Khan Academy, did a TED talk [3] on this. [1] link [2] link [3] How AI Could Save (Not Destroy) Education | Sal Khan | TED - this video - May 1st, 2023
