Ezra Klein

So then this gets to the AI optimist case. And I take the AI optimist case as something like this. It's pretty hard to do personalized learning, even if you have examples that you've seen work. Because you have one teacher, it's a classroom of 20, 30 kids oftentimes. But AI makes this completely different. AI gives you more tutors than there are children.

So then this gets to the AI optimist case. And I take the AI optimist case as something like this. It's pretty hard to do personalized learning, even if you have examples that you've seen work. Because you have one teacher, it's a classroom of 20, 30 kids oftentimes. But AI makes this completely different. AI gives you more tutors than there are children.

It allows you to have tutors who adapt to that kid's individual learning style in any way you want it to, in any way they want it to. If this kid is a visual learner, it can do visual learning. If pop quizzes are helpful for them, they can do pop quizzes. It can turn it into a podcast they listen to if you are more audio focused.

It allows you to have tutors who adapt to that kid's individual learning style in any way you want it to, in any way they want it to. If this kid is a visual learner, it can do visual learning. If pop quizzes are helpful for them, they can do pop quizzes. It can turn it into a podcast they listen to if you are more audio focused.

Everything can be turned into a poem if you absorb information better through the sonnet form. That as we get better at this, And as we build these systems and tune them better, although they're already pretty capable here, that our ability to personalize education using artificial intelligence as tutors will be like nothing ever seen before in human history.

Everything can be turned into a poem if you absorb information better through the sonnet form. That as we get better at this, And as we build these systems and tune them better, although they're already pretty capable here, that our ability to personalize education using artificial intelligence as tutors will be like nothing ever seen before in human history.

It's a complete quantum leap in educational possibility. And as such, it allows you to bring every child into their educational utopia, whatever that is, to spark them, to turn them on, to make them into an explorer and How do you feel about that more utopic vision?

It's a complete quantum leap in educational possibility. And as such, it allows you to bring every child into their educational utopia, whatever that is, to spark them, to turn them on, to make them into an explorer and How do you feel about that more utopic vision?

Well, let me push you on this for a second before you go here, because if I'm taking the position of the AI optimist, What I'd say is, no, I'm not saying that. I'm saying the AI will be better than the teachers.

Well, let me push you on this for a second before you go here, because if I'm taking the position of the AI optimist, What I'd say is, no, I'm not saying that. I'm saying the AI will be better than the teachers.

If we are saying that AI is going to be better than the median for many people at many kinds of work, why would we not assume that this system we will be able to build in six years, given how fast these things are developing, won't per kid... be better than the teacher. I'm not saying I believe this, but I want to make you argue with the AI optimist case.

If we are saying that AI is going to be better than the median for many people at many kinds of work, why would we not assume that this system we will be able to build in six years, given how fast these things are developing, won't per kid... be better than the teacher. I'm not saying I believe this, but I want to make you argue with the AI optimist case.

I guess another way you might think about it is that this changes the job of the teacher quite substantially. Absolutely. So, and I will say, I think I don't believe what I'm about to say. So I don't want to get yelled at by everybody for every take I'm on. I'm not talking to you. I'm talking to my beloved audience. My beloved audience. Fair enough. But,

I guess another way you might think about it is that this changes the job of the teacher quite substantially. Absolutely. So, and I will say, I think I don't believe what I'm about to say. So I don't want to get yelled at by everybody for every take I'm on. I'm not talking to you. I'm talking to my beloved audience. My beloved audience. Fair enough. But,

One thing I've observed is that it seems to me that where AI is going to push is towards the skills of the manager, the editor, the supervisor, the fact checker in a way. And often away from the skills, which are right now more numerous and needed in more numerous quantities, of the worker, of the writer, of, in this case, maybe the teacher.

One thing I've observed is that it seems to me that where AI is going to push is towards the skills of the manager, the editor, the supervisor, the fact checker in a way. And often away from the skills, which are right now more numerous and needed in more numerous quantities, of the worker, of the writer, of, in this case, maybe the teacher.

So if you think about that world that you were just describing as the one we don't want a second ago, where you have 25 kids in a class, they're all staring at a screen. They're all working with an individualized AI tutor. Right.

So if you think about that world that you were just describing as the one we don't want a second ago, where you have 25 kids in a class, they're all staring at a screen. They're all working with an individualized AI tutor. Right.

You could imagine a world, if you think about every one of those screens, as a junior teacher, as an individual tutor, that there's some master teacher in the room who the kids can go talk to, who can be pulled in to sort of oversee the learning, to reshape what's happening. There is testing. There are things that are trying to help us evaluate how the kids are doing.

You could imagine a world, if you think about every one of those screens, as a junior teacher, as an individual tutor, that there's some master teacher in the room who the kids can go talk to, who can be pulled in to sort of oversee the learning, to reshape what's happening. There is testing. There are things that are trying to help us evaluate how the kids are doing.