Newsletter 68: Teachable AI: When AI Gets Schooled on Teaching

OpenAI's New Bag: Teachable AI

Good morning folks!

Coach Matt here, back at it again with my daily dose o' AI news. I'm sipping my morning joe and ready to spill the beans on OpenAI's latest project - Teachable AI.

As a coach, I gotta say I'm pumped about this initiative to create more natural, human-like AI tutors. Lord knows some of my teachers back in high school sounded more like robots reading off a script. No bueno.

But Teachable AI wants to bring some heart into the world of virtual teaching. They're cooking up tutor bots that can have real convos with students and get to know their needs. Pretty sweet!

In my book, nothing will ever replace flesh-and-blood teachers who build personal connections. But AI tutors could be a rad study buddy for extra support. We're talking next-level personalization!

Anyway, I'm buzzing off this coffee and excited to dive into the details with y'all. Keep reading for the scoop on how OpenAI plans to whip up these AI tutors of tomorrow. The future of education is looking bright!

Conversational Bots That Can School

A big part of OpenAI's Teachable AI mission is to create tutor bots that are less robotic teacher and more chill conversation partner.

They want to build AI that can chat with students about academic topics in a natural way, similar to how a human teacher would. The goal is tutoring that feels more like a back-and-forth discussion than a stiff Q&A session.

For example, these AI tutors should be able to:

- Answer questions in their own words, without pre-programmed responses

- Give explanations and feedback tailored to each student's needs

- Admit when they don't know something instead of guessing

- Build on previous conversations and maintain context

- Crack the occasional joke!

This would make the learning experience much more engaging for students compared to current AI assistants. The tutoring would be personalized, conversational, and adaptive - just like working with a real human educator.

The idea is that in the future, every student could have access to an AI tutor who understands their strengths, weaknesses, and learning style. But of course, no bot can fully replace a flesh-and-blood teacher who builds real relationships with students.

TeachAI Dataset - Food for Thought

So how exactly is OpenAI trying to cook up these natural-sounding AI tutors? Data is the secret sauce.

OpenAI compiled something called the TeachAI dataset, which contains over 1 million real dialogues between students and AI tutors discussing math and science topics. This massive dataset provides the raw materials for training conversational AI.

By analyzing these examples of students having actual back-and-forths with AI tutors, the bots can learn:

- How to naturally respond to questions and requests

- How to provide explanations tailored to the student's level

- When to admit what they don't know vs. attempting an answer

- How to build on previous conversations

Essentially, the TeachAI dataset gives the AI models examples to learn from, like a chef learning recipes. The more diverse dialogue data the bots can train on, the more natural and adaptive they can become.

While starting with math and science, the hope is to expand the dataset to other academic subjects over time. The larger and more varied the dataset, the stronger these AI tutors will become.

Anthropic Assistant Brings the Human Touch

In addition to the TeachAI dataset, OpenAI has also introduced an AI tutor called Anthropic Assistant specifically designed for classroom learning.

Unlike some stiff, robotic AI assistants today, Anthropic Assistant aims to bring more human touch to virtual tutoring. Some of its goals:

- Have natural back-and-forth dialogue with students

- Explain concepts in clear, student-friendly language

- Maintain context between conversations

- Adjust explanations based on the student's level

- Admit when it doesn't fully understand a question

The hope is that Anthropic Assistant can engage students in a conversational flow, building on previous chats to reinforce connections over time.

While still an early prototype, this AI demonstrates how natural language processing is evolving. The goal is for Anthropic Assistant to understand students' needs and tailor its teaching style to each learner, just as a human would.

Of course, no bot can fully replace human teachers who build real relationships with students. But Anthropic Assistant represents a shift towards more adaptive, personalized AI tutors.

Envisioning AI + Human Teachers

At the end of the day, OpenAI's vision for Teachable AI is not to replace human teachers - but to enhance real classrooms.

The goal is to develop AI tutors that can work alongside flesh-and-blood educators as collaborators. Rather than substitute teachers, the AIs would supplement them.

Imagine students having access to both their human teachers and AI tutors. The human provides guidance, relationships, high-level explanations. The AI offers personalized drills, adapts to each student's pace, and answers nitty gritty questions.

Together, the educator and AI could provide the best of both worlds. More one-on-one support fueled by technology, while still preserving the heart of human teaching.

Of course, we have a long way to go before this vision is reality. But initiatives like Teachable AI bring us one step closer to AIs that can enhance education, instead of competing with it.

The future is human and artificial intelligence working together - and that future looks bright.

Keep thinking differently, and let's shape the future together.

Matt "Coach IV" Ivey 

Founder, Dyslexic.ai We Think Like You