AI's Education Revolution.

"The Journal's headlines tell the story: "Eighth-Graders' History, Civics Test Scores Hit Record Low." "Fourth-Grade Test Scores Plummet." "ACT Test Scores Drop to Lowest Levels in More Than 30 Years." Plus, 67% of fourth-graders nationwide score below "proficient" on reading tests. Disgraceful.

Millions of students use Khan Academy's online videos and problem sets to supplement their schoolwork. Three years ago, Sal Khan and I spoke about developing a tool like the Illustrated Primer from Neal Stephenson's 1995 novel "The Diamond Age: Or, a Young Lady's Illustrated Primer." It's an education tablet, in the author's words, in which "the pictures moved, and you could ask them questions and get answers." Adaptive, intuitive, personalized, self-paced -- nothing like today's education. But it's science-fiction.

Last week I spoke with Mr. Khan, who told me, "Now I think a Primer is within reach within five years. In some ways, we've even surpassed some of the elements of the Primer, using characters like George Washington to teach lessons." What changed? Simple -- generative artificial intelligence. Khan Academy has been working with OpenAI's ChatGPT since before its release last December.

In the novel, the main character Nell asks about ravens, and "the picture zoomed in on the black dot, and it turned out to be a bird. Big letters appeared beneath. 'RAVEN,' the book said. 'Raven. Now, say it with me.' 'Raven.'"

Later, she asks, "What's an adventure?" and "both pages filled with moving pictures of glorious things: girls in armor fighting dragons with swords, and girls riding white unicorns through the forest, and girls swinging from vines, swimming in the blue ocean, piloting rocket ships through space. ... After awhile all of the girls began to look like older versions of herself."

Even later, a smarter, industrious Nell "tried to think about the machine that she was designing in her head, with the help of the Primer, about how the gears meshed and the bearings spun, how the rod logic was programmed and where the energy was stored." A super tutor.

Mr. Khan's stated goals for Khan Academy are "personalization and mastery." He notes that "high-performing, wealthier households have resources -- time, know-how and money -- to provide their children one-on-one tutoring to learn subjects and then use schools to prove what they know." With his company's new AI-infused tool, Khanmigo -- sounds like con migo or "with me" -- one-on-one teaching can scale to the masses.

Khanmigo allows students to make queries in the middle of lessons or videos and understands the context of what they're watching. You can ask, "What is the significance of the green light in 'The Great Gatsby?'" Heck, that one is still over my head. Same with help on factoring polynomials, including recognizing which step a student got wrong, not just knowing the answer is wrong, fixing ChatGPT's math problem. Sci-fi becomes reality: a scalable super tutor.

Mr. Khan suggests, "There is no limit to learning. If you ask, 'Why is the sky blue?' you'll get a short answer and then maybe, 'But let's get back to the mitochondria lesson.'" Mr. Khan thinks "average students can become exceptional students."

Teaching will be transformed. Mr. Khan wants Khanmigo "to provide teachers in the U.S. and around the world an indispensable tool to make their lives better" by administering lessons and increasing communications between teachers and students. I would question any school that doesn't encourage its use.

Mr. Khan tells me, "We want to raise the ceiling, but also the floor." He wants to provide his company's AI-learning technology to "villages and other places with little or no teachers or tools. We can give everyone a tutor, everyone a writing coach." That's when education and society will really change.

Back to "The Diamond Age." When an older Nell interviews to join an advanced school, she asks of a Raphael painting, "Which one is Aglaia? . . . As the name of your school is the Three Graces, I have ventured to assume that yonder painting depicts the same subject, since they look more like Graces than Furies or Fates . . . Which of the ladies represents Aglaia, or brilliance?" Can your child do this? That's the goal." [1]

1. Inside View: AI's Education Revolution. Kessler, Andy. 
Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y. [New York, N.Y]. 22 May 2023: A.15.