Your AI guru

KIRAN KARNIK

Meet your new teacher: Prof. AI. Irrespective of your age or stage of education, this new teacher can guide you through all levels of learning, up to whatever point you desire to reach.

“Lifelong learning” has been spoken of for decades; now, this cliche has transitioned from being merely desirable, to becoming a necessity. Education has moved from being one period in your life — generally, pre-career — to being a never-ending and ongoing part of life. Without this, your knowledge and skills will be obsolete within 10 (or just five) years, and you will no longer get a job. In addition, automation will swallow your job function, and you will have to upskill or re-skill to survive.

It is in this process of mastering new skills and honing them in a continuous iterative cycle, that your new teacher is essential. An artificial intelligence (AI) driven virtual presence, it (or s/he, if you prefer a more human — though yet virtual — teacher) will be a companion, always there whenever you need. As you tap into the massive content databases available on the net, a myriad of online courses, lectures and talks, or listen to a live exposition, Prof. AI will be the teacher by your side.

Think of a scenario where you are learning something new from an online source or course. Through periodic assessments — done just by asking you a few questions — Prof. AI detects that you have not understood some part. It will accordingly repeat that — not in the same form, because you could not quite grasp it — but modifying the content in a way that you may understand. It may pace it slower. It may make it different. Depending on your responses, it will modify the material.

This is what AI (here, we include Gen AI in this) can do: not just assessing what you understood, but modifying the basic content so that you comprehend it better. It then re-checks by asking you some more questions. Based on your answers, it continues to modify. This iteration goes on until you learn and progress to the next level. So, it ensures you are progressing upward in your learning — all through continuously assessing and modifying the speed and content of the additional material provided. If you’re doing very well, it speeds up the material — you don’t have to be stuck at some fixed rate. So: learning at your pace, at your time, according to your need, with AI there to help you, by your side all the time.

It will also take examples from your own daily life, picked up by AI from all that you do, including, a bit scarily, all the posts you make on social media. It knows what kind of person you are, what you do, what you experienced, where you went — and, with avid Instagrammers, even what they ate. So, it knows everything about you and, based on that, will create material or modify existing content especially for you: what one might call experiential learning.

Often, books and talks give unfamiliar examples (how many in rural India understand the shape of a “bathtub curve”, often used to describe the life cycle of components or systems, or of human mortality). Your personal AI teacher will modify that to provide analogies based on your own experience.

The AI teacher will also simulate and provide an immersive environment so that you can experience things which cannot be seen in real life. It’s akin to what you may see in a movie like The Matrix. You are in the Matrix. It’s about making you live that experience, which you can never actually do.

This teacher by your side has another advantage: it will not be judgemental. It will not scold you or pull you up. If you want to take a break and see a movie or go to a cafe, it won’t admonish you. It will be patient and won’t push you. In addition, it’s there 24/7, ever-present at your beck and call. Through high-quality content on the net, the best learning material is available to all, irrespective of location and quality of their school or institution. Prof. AI, each person’s personal teacher, will also be available to all. This will ensure high education quality, and also better/deeper learning. It will facilitate the continuous upskilling and re-skilling, which is now so essential.

These developments will also mean a radical change in the role and functions of teachers. Many will be content developers, requiring teamwork between content experts, designers, creative people, communication professionals and others. They will develop and constantly update full courses or content on specific topics and skills. Some will serve as guides and discussion facilitators for learners. Others will develop and regularly upgrade the AI companion to learners, vicariously becoming the virtual Prof. AI. A few will scan the environment and guide other teachers about the requirement for new skills for which content will have to be developed.

Does this mean the end of the traditional classroom lectures; therefore, of classrooms themselves? Is any physical infrastructure required at all for schools and universities? Does this mark the end of campuses and of institutions like “university”? Certification of skill and education may yet be necessary. Can this be done by purely online self-assessments, proctored and authenticated by AI?

Maybe, we will yet need discussion rooms (if not classrooms) for face-to-face interaction amongst students and with a human teacher. Learners may also feel the need for the warmth, empathy, and emotional connect that only a human can provide. Socializing and team sports, plus other group activities (dramatics, bands, and the like) may yet require a “campus”. Yet, the learning context, pedagogy, and assessments will be vastly different.

Learning, in the world of tomorrow, will be challenging, exciting, and a bit scary. It promises limitless learning opportunities. Most important, it will be inclusive and level the field between the privileged and the disadvantaged. Prepare, then, to welcome Professor AI. ν 

Kiran Karnik is a public policy analyst author, and columnist. His most recent book is ‘Decisive Decade: India 2030, Gazelle or Hippo’.