E53: The AI Revolution in Education with Shawn Jansepar, Director of Engineering at Khan Academy

Shawn Jansepar

"The Cognitive Revolution: How AI Changes Everything"

- Khan Academy partnered with OpenAI to gain early access to GPT-4
- Initial impressions of GPT-4 were that it was an omnipotent being with vast knowledge
- Khan Academy initially hesitated to make GPT-4 directly accessible to learners due to safety concerns
- They explored using GPT-4 to help build content and generate lesson plans
- They discovered OpenAI's moderation API to mitigate risks and decided to develop a guide on the side experience called Khan Migo
- Khan Migo started as a scrappy Chrome extension integrated into Khan Academy's site
- They tested Khan Migo with students from Khan Lab School and received positive feedback
- They worked closely with OpenAI to improve the model's math accuracy and tutoring capabilities
- Khan Academy engaged the whole company in a hackathon to develop features for the launch of Khan Migo
- They tested the model extensively before the successful launch on March 14th
- The personal AI tutor has the potential to be a game-changer in education, with the two standard deviation effect being a reference point for its effectiveness in improving learning outcomes.

How Khan Academy is implementing AI. What will it do to education?