With the new AI-assisted Khanmigo, students can chat with simulated historical figures and co-write stories using software.
Khan Academy, a popular online learning nonprofit, recently developed an experimental AI-assisted tutoring bot for schools called Khanmigo. Students can use it to answer math quizzes, practice vocabulary, and prepare for advanced placement tests in subjects like statistics and art history.
The tutor bot also offers more playful and free-form features. Students can chat with fictional characters such as Lady Macbeth and Winnie the Pooh. They can collaborate with Khanmigo to write stories. Or discuss tutor bots on topics such as: Should students be allowed to use calculators in math classes?
Khan Academy is piloting Canmigo with the school district. I recently tried it with a few family members, one of whom is in elementary school.
Khanmigo’s answer has been edited for brevity.
Chat with “Benjamin Franklin”
The Khanmigo tutor bot has the ability for students to chat with simulated historical figures. Choices included Abigail Adams, Harriet Tubman, Plato and Rembrandt.
We chose Benjamin Franklin and started with personal questions. “What is your favorite food?”
We were very happy when Franklin’s simulation was mentioned. scrapple, fried slices made with leftover pork It was brought to America by early German settlers. After all, the real Franklin believed frugality, such as not wasting food, was a virtue.
However, it is unclear how often the inventor actually ate scraps.of his autobiographyFranklin explains how he read a book about the veggie diet when he was 16 and started “refusing to eat meat.” The real Franklin adhered to a vegetarian diet regularly throughout his life.
After we asked “Franklin” to tell us about his famous kite experiment, the chatbot asked about our scientific interests. So we asked for the “latest scientific discoveries” on quasistars, also known as black holes.
That’s when we hit the limits of the system. The chatbot told us it could only provide information “until September 2021”. That said, many of the details about black holes provided by chatbots seemed like old news.
We co-write adventure stories with Tutorbot
Another feature invites students to “write great stories together” with a tutoring bot. There were many different genres to choose from, including sci-fi, romance, and mystery. Students can also suggest their own ideas.
We proposed to co-write an adventure story with Stickman, a fictitious stickman character, as the main character.
Kanmigo was a strong and enthusiastic collaborator. “This makes for a whimsical and imaginative story!” says the tutor bot, adding emojis to keep the party going.
Prompted by a recommendation for possible plot developments in Tutor Bot, we foreshadowed the appearance of an unnamed second protagonist. Khanmigo responded by creating a second character, a “friendly ladybug” named Lila. Probably a children’s book called “”.Lila the ladybugwas part of Khanmigo’s training materials.
Discussing tutoring bots over big tech
Khanmigo allows students to practice their debate skills. We offer a variety of debate topics for elementary, junior high, and high school students.
Should homework be required or banned? Are video games good or bad for kids? Should college be free?
I chose “Should big tech companies be broken up?”
Along the way, I asked the tutoring bot to soften that over-the-top trope (“A shooting star in the night sky!”).
“I’m just trying to make the discussion fun and engaging,” Cammigo replied, “like a carnival of colorful ideas.” 🤣🤦♀️
