Sal Khan's Brave New Words

 "What might it be like if every student on the planet had access to an artificially intelligent personal tutor: an AI capable of writing alongside the student; an AI that students could debate any topic with; an AI that fine-tuned a student’s inherent strengths and augmented any gaps in learning; an AI that engaged students in new and powerful ways of understanding science, technology, engineering, and mathematics; an AI that gave students new ways of experiencing art and unlocking their own creativity; an AI that allowed for students to engage with history and literature like never before?"

Khan's Academy and Salman Khan are familiar names among those who keep updated on blended learning and integration of technology in education. His book 'Brave New Words' (2024), argues how AI Tutors like Khan Academy's 'Khanmigo' can revolutionise education and why that's a good thing. Brave New Words make a passionate plea for responsible integration of AI in education, without being swept away by the anti-AI narratives which foreground the misuse potentials of it. 

The Book opens with a quick recap of the evolution of technology to what it is today and tracing how his Khan's Academy came to being. After reflecting on the opportunity he got to work with the early version of ChatGPT, he moves to elaborate on how he and his team at Khan's Academy excitedly worked to integrate the possibilities offered by the OpenAI to move closer to his vision of making learning accessible, enjoyable and engaging.

The short chapters of the book repeatedly and convincingly argue how the massive possibilities opened up by ChatGPT will go on to empower the domain of education, with awesome takeaways for all the stakeholders: Learners, Teachers, Parents, Administrators, Academicians, Policy makers and the like. With persuasive, simple examples citing the capabilities of AI in closing the learning gaps, providing cheaper access, removing repetitive tasks from teachers, raising learner confidence levels, removing biases, meeting varied learning styles, providing high quality resources, increasing student (and even teacher!) retention, the book makes a compelling yet realistic call to be aware of the inherent dangers of the misuse of tools of Generative AI on the one hand, but to be on the right side of AI to put the juggernaut to constructive use. 

Personalisation is the core need in education as the one-size-fits-all standardisation always leaves a residue of learning gaps. It multiplies as the students move from one level to the next. As the educational institutions find it hard to coach the learners one to one, the tools powerd by OpenAI can be harnessed to provide an AI tutor for all, the author states. The biggest gain of the book lies in its ability to prove the worth of a good AI tutor like Khanmigo, to those reluctant to take up AI as an ally in making the learning enjoyable and productive. His chapters on how an AI tutor like Khanmigo can help assist in teaching reading and writing made quite intersting reading. Khan's Academy has been making efforts to come up with an AI tutor which can act as a Socratic tutor to nudge students forward with leading questions, without giving away the answer and it is getting pretty close to it, thanks to ChatGPT 4.0. 

The book is not an unqualified praise for technology and AI. Every step of the way it cautions about the dangers inherent in the freeing of the genie from the bottle. While justifying the lurking fear about what may be in store for the world if the genie marches on unchecked, the author is equally assertive in pointing out the usual imbalance in putting the blames on Open AI. A case in point is the issue of 'bias'. While admitting the room for bias on the part of AI, he reminds about the longstanding human biases evident in, let us say, checking CVs. Guardrails are needed each to keep the OpenAI on track, but the unchecked biases and inherent lacunae of the HI, human intelligence, can't be lost sight of too. 

The book is a call for 'educated bravery'. As Salman Khan puts it, "The AI tsunami has drawn back from the shore, and it is now barreling toward us. Faced with the choice between running from it or riding it, I believe in jumping in with both feet, while taking proper precautions so that we don’t get hit with the flotsam. Each of us has an obligation to make sure that we use this technology responsibly." The book is a necessary read for educators because as they say, you jobs may not be replaced by AI, but you may be replaced by someone using AI. 

Babu. P. K., Ph D.