Personalized Learning with AI

As artificial intelligence continues to evolve (and gain so so much hype), one of the big use cases that is coming repeatedly to the fore in several ways is education. AI tutors! AI teachers! AI cheaters! AI to do my job so I can play video games!

I’m a strong believer in education as a personalized experience, one where we can chose the method and pace by which we learn. Professionally I’ve had the opportunity to build this kind of curated, omni-channel learning experience for software companies that need learners of all levels to understand the content, the purpose, and the outcomes we wanted them to achieve with it. This, to me, is the meaning of enablement.

With AI, we can make this happen in incredible new ways. In a prior edition I talked about inference and how ChatGPT and other AI tools utilize it to form conclusions based on learned knowledge much like humans do. One of my favorite teaching mechanisms is metaphor… something we are capable of understanding due to abductive inference, or our ability to quickly understand things by linking it to something we know.

So imagine content that is instantly adapted to the learner’s unique interests and background. Check out this example, using a paragraph from a high school science textbook:

It’s a lesson about hypotheses, and how they work and are validated. But with a simple prompt asking it to adapt for a football player, and the power of GPT-4:

But hey, football isn’t the only interest out there in high school. For the sake of keeping this PG I won’t mention all of them. But here’s where I asked ChatGPT to rewrite it with one of my high school favorites, Magic The Gathering:

And one more, for ballet:

In traditional education settings (K-12, Higher Ed, and professional training), explanations are often uniform, assuming one-size-fits-all. However, each learner's prior knowledge, interests, and experiences shape the way they understand new concepts.

Drawing upon a vast array of linguistic and semantic patterns learned during its training, GPT-4 can adapt explanations to cater to the learner's specific background. In essence, it can transform an abstract, complicated concept into something relatable, making learning a more personal and engaging experience.

The future potential of this in classrooms and in professional training are mindblowing to me. Imagine textbooks that are factually accurate but contextually dynamic, able to provide lessons differently to each student in a way that will truly resonate with them. In business, imagine onboarding and training that automatically adjusts your methodology to their unique needs and work style.

By transforming the learning experience in such a manner, we can ensure that education becomes a more engaging, intuitive, and enjoyable process for everyone. This future isn't far off at all given the speed with which new apps and tools are coming out. I for one am ready for a learning journey that takes me where I’m going based on where I’ve been.