How teachers can preserve value when AI can be a good tutor

This article was originally written on Substack on May 18th, 2024.

OpenAI just announced the new AI model, GPT-4o, a few days ago. One of the widely discussed applications of GPT-4o was that its ability to act as a personal tutor and teach math. It was not teaching any students directly; it was teaching the son of Sal Khan, the founder of Khan Academy, under his supervision.

I won’t talk about how it did an unbelievable job here. Many experts have explained that already. Instead, I’m more interested in the role Sal Khan played here. In the video, he was the person giving prompts to the AI tutor and connecting it with his son.

Ever since I got into the digital learning/teaching world, I’ve strongly believed that real human teachers do not have to worry about being replaced by digital tools. This idea was established back when we didn’t have generative AI, and I still hold that belief today.

If we look at the example in the video, there are plenty of elements besides the teaching itself. Who gave the tool to the learner? Who pointed the AI tutor in the right teaching direction? Who supervised the whole learning process to ensure it went as expected? These tasks are still done by real humans. Of course, many of these can potentially be developed into AI capabilities as well, but the role of facilitators is always needed.

Ultimately, these tasks can be done by the students themselves, too. And that is exactly what we want to achieve! We’re cultivating the students’ ability to set the appropriate learning environment and plan for themselves as true learners, also known as self-regulated learning skills. These skills do not exist from day one. It takes time to accumulate experience, navigation skills, resourcefulness, etc. And we need teachers to be there until the job is done.

I know many teachers out there are anxious about adopting AI in their teaching work. If that’s too much for you for now, just put it aside. You’re already doing an amazing job as a teacher. Just see this as a potential opportunity. Ultimately, we want to help students grow into better learners and individuals, and AI can be a real partner for you to focus on leading students to learn how to learn. See it as your partner, not your competitor.