Greg LindenMay 19, 2023
I got into the Khanmigo beta, which is an AI chatbot from Khan Academy that is supposed to be like a personalized tutor. I was underwhelmed. It looked like it was just a normal chatbot with a strong bias to recommend existing Khan videos. Did anyone else have a better experience? If you liked it, what did you try with it that worked well? So far, it reeks of overpromise and underdeliver to me, which was disappointing as I had high hopes for the idea.
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Show threadGreg LindenMay 19, 2023
I asked it to teach a foreign language (Italian) and it refused, though wrote that it couldn't speak Italian in Italian. I asked it about organic chemistry and it referred me to videos. I did the debate (on whether college should be free) and it just gave up immediately when I started talking about ROI of investments. I did a lot more too and found plenty of errors. I really was hoping for a smart tutor, but it wasn't that, at least in my experience.
Show threadGreg Linden
The promise is that AI chatbots like Khanmigo are supposed to be the answer to Bloom's 2 sigma problem (human tutors are drastically more effective than classrooms). But this definitely isn't that solution or, as far as I can tell, a step toward it. But maybe others had a better experience? If so, what worked well for you?
May 19, 2023 at 10:58pmWeb
Show threadPaethonMay 20, 2023
@glinden
Thanks, I had not heard of Bloom's 2 sigma problem before 👍
Show threadGreg LindenMay 21, 2023
@stabinger One interesting tidbit on Bloom's 2 Sigma Problem is that it's a big part of the motivation behind Duolingo's personalized learning. That's their goal, to get to the level of a personal language tutor. Luis von Ahn talks about it quite a bit when he talks about how Duolingo tries to adapt the lessons to each person to be a engaging and motivating level of challenge without being frustrating.