Book Review: Brave New Words

How AI Will Revolutionize Education (Bite-sized Review)

Book Link

In "Brave New Words," Salman Khan, founder of Khan Academy, offers a measured yet enthusiastic exploration of AI's potential to revolutionize education. Khan, who famously democratized learning with free online resources, argues that AI's true power lies not in replacing teachers, but in empowering them (I am not sure about this, we live in a world where the economic incentives are quite huge to replace anything replaceable with a machine).

Khan's personal journey from Wall Street to pioneering online education provides compelling context for his vision of AI as a "super tutor," capable of personalized instruction, addressing learning gaps, and fostering self-confidence. He addresses concerns about cheating too - I will only add that Khan's argument on reliance on AI to detect cheating might be overly optimistic, the false positives are going to break the system.

The book also delves into how AI can bring history and civics to life, for example, facilitate collaborative learning, and even offer mental health support. 

I think the potential for AI in education is simply huge, I for one have been able to read - and effectively learn - so much more today than I did in say 2020. I am able to use chatbot to delve into complex topics, ask it for analogies to speed up my learning process, I learnt how to use a python web framework over a chat (while waiting for a friend in the car on a recent trip),  I recently tried Google’s illuminate which allows me to turn computer science papers into a nice podcast I can listen to on my walk to the lab. You can take concepts and morph them into music for students (say trap music for algebra), there is so much here.

That being said, as I have hinted in this short review, care has to be taken with addressing negative externalities (not merely the first order effect, but the second and the third) - an area we are largely inept at, as a civilization.

For example, I think if care is not taken, younger folks are going to lose writing abilities, to which an AI maximalist might reply, who cares? (I am no maximalist) If that happens the following might follow: diminished critical thinking and problem-solving skills.

I have always made the point elsewhere that there are two kinds of writing: 1) you can write as a way/mode of learning (impossible to automate); 2) you can write about what you already know e.g., report writing (probably fine to semi-automate, depending on the context). 

I am not certain about many things, but this I am quite sure of: AI will be unleashed on education, and about everything else in our society.