I think AI could be quite useful in a homeschooling context, particularly as a tutor.

Things like Kahn Academy are also super useful....

In fact seeing KA made me realize that for nearly all elementary school subjects...we don't need 99% of the teachers of the world....just find the best ones and record them teaching via a screencast.

Suddenly all kids of the world can have access to the "best teacher" on any given subject, which will no doubt be a 10x improvement over their local teacher.....

I remember Synthesis being these online STEM courses where you work with a small group of other kids. This looks like an LLM for learning alone.

I need to look into it more TBH. I've decided that I'd like to home school my kids (1 &3), but not sure if this is the best way to do it. I don't want to offset all the learning to a bot. They'll need to do stuff IRL with other kids. Social interaction and problem solving are things an LLM can't teach IMO. Maybe this might be useful for an hour or two. My 3yo has so many questions, it might be nice to let a bot answer for a bit while I recharge!

I’m a teacher in a public school, so naturally I’m biased.

Here’s my take:

AI-enabled tools have their limitations. Since they are based on Large Learning Models, their accuracy and effectiveness are dependent upon the size and currency of the training data. This pales in comparison to a teacher-led classroom, in which the educator can get his students up to speed on contemporary affairs. In this increasingly volatile and complex world, being overly reliant on AI platforms may cause students to compromise on their competitiveness because novel scientific developments quickly render old methods obsolete. As such, AI-empowered tools should only serve as complementary to a teacher-led classroom, not replace the educator.

I wrote the above on my blog as a response to the U.K opening the first teacherless AI classroom in London