Khan Academy launched Khanmigo, a GPT-4 powered learning guide, to select educators and students in March.
Unlike ChatGPT, Khanmigo doesn’t do homework for students, but instead acts as a tutor and guide to help them learn, says Sal Khan, founder of the nonprofit learning resource Khan Academy.
“It’s going really well,” Khan says of the pilot program. He adds that Khan Academy is currently recruiting additional school districts to work with Khanmigo when school resumes this fall or later in the summer, and educators in districts interested in participating should get in touch.
In the meantime, here’s everything you need to know about Khanmigo.
How did Khan Academy and Open AI come together for Khanmigo?
OpenAI contacted Khan Academy last summer, long before ChatGPT became a household name.
“I was skeptical at first because I was familiar with GPT-3, which I thought was cool, but I didn’t think it was something we could immediately take advantage of at Khan Academy,” says Khan. “But then a couple of weeks later, when we saw the GPT-4 demo, we were like, ‘Oh, this is a big deal.'”
While GPT-4 still suffered from some of the “hallucinations” that large language models can generate, it had noticeably fewer of them. It was also dramatically more robust. “He was able to do things that felt like science fiction before that, like drive a nuanced conversation,” says Khan. “In fact, I think that 4, if requested correctly, feels like passing the time. Turing test. He really feels like a caring human being on the other side.”
How is Khanmigo different from ChatGPT?
The free version of ChatGPT works with GPT-3.5. For educational purposes, the Khanmigo with GPT-4 technology can hold much more sophisticated conversations, serving as a more realistic tutor for students.
“GPT-3.5 can’t really drive a conversation,” says Khan. “If a student says, ‘Hey, tell me the answer’ with GPT-3.5, even if you tell him not to say the answer, he’ll still give the answer.”
Instead, Khanmigo will help the student find the answer on their own by asking how they arrived at that solution and perhaps pointing out how they might have gotten off on a math question.
“What we can get 4 to do is something like, ‘Nice try. It looks like you might have made a mistake distributing that negative two, why don’t you give it another try? Or, ‘Can you help me explain your reasoning, because I think you might have made a mistake?’”
Factual hallucinations and math errors are also much less frequent with the Khanmigo version of the technology. These still occur, but they are rare, Khan says.
How well is Khanmigo doing so far?
“Last spring, schools in New Jersey, Indiana, Arizona, and California helped us test Khanmigo during the first part of our pilot program,” says Khan. “Teachers used Khanmigo to do things like co-write lesson plans, lesson hooks, and exit tickets. Students used Khanmigo to get help in math, science, and humanities.”
Feedback from students and educators has led to updates. “We learned a lot from them,” Khan says. “They shared recommendations that we implemented in Khanmigo, such as adding more historical and literary characters to chat and adding a way to adjust the reading style. Over the summer we will make further improvements.”
What are some questions about the future of Khanmigo?
Khanmigo can be used to help students as a virtual tutor and as a discussion partner. Teachers can also access it to generate lesson plans and help with other administrative tasks.
Part of the goal of its pilot launch will be to determine what the demand for the tutor will be and how educators and students use it, Khan says. They also want to see what potential problems can arise from the technology. “We feel like there’s a lot of value here for educators and students, and we just don’t want bad things to happen that sour people with all the positive things. So we are being very careful,” he says.
Cost is another factor that the Khan Academy team will study. These AI tools require a large amount of computing power, which can be expensive to generate; however, costs have been steadily declining, and Khan expects this trend to continue.
How can educators sign up for Khanmigo?
Educators interested in using Khanmigo with their students can sign up to join the waiting list. The program is also available to school districts that participate in Khan Academy Districts.
“Khanmigo is now available to additional school districts that want to pilot with us in the fall,” Khan says. “We will provide professional learning for teachers to support them as they introduce AI into their classrooms, and we will also support districts. Districts that join us will help us continue to improve Khanmigo to meet their needs in the classroom. This is a really exciting time for new districts to be on this journey with us. I believe we are on the cusp of one of the biggest transformations education has ever seen.”
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