Mrs. MigoAn AI platform designed by the academic nonprofit Khan Academy is like Socrates in a laptop: it answers questions with questions, asking students to use their knowledge to fully understand them. Respond in an informed, contextual manner.
“I asked… what are three examples of acid?” Abigail explained to 60 Minutes correspondent Anderson Cooper.
After providing more examples, Khanmigo listed the different types of acids found in common, everyday drinks.
Then he asked, “Can you think of any household items that contain acid?”
“Khanmigo leads you to an answer, and it asks you a question to help you think,” Cooper told 60 Minutes Overtime.
Khan Academy founder Sal Khan gave an early look at the underlying technology behind OpenAI’s chat GPT in 2022.
He told Cooper that he had immediate concerns that it could be used to cheat, such as writing essays for students. But he also saw incredible potential: an artificially intelligent tutor with “guard rails.”
“To help the students, to give them more feedback … to help the teachers with all the lesson planning and writing progress reports that they spend hours a week on,” Khan said.
Now, Khanmigo is being piloted in 266 school districts across the U.S., for grades three through 12.
Teachers use Khanmigo to create lesson plans, review subjects, and plan classroom activities. Students use it to get help when they’re stuck on homework, fine-tune their writing, or work on practice problems.
“I was interested in it from a journalistic standpoint, but just from a personal standpoint,” Cooper told 60 Minutes Overtime.
“I have a 2-year-old and a 4-year-old. My 4-year-old is starting kindergarten next year.”
Cooper asked Khan for an AI tutor that could help his son with math and science homework at advanced levels, which would prove to be a game changer.
“That’s our hope. Although I would say… a lot of parents are embarrassed if they forget things… learn it with their kids,” Khan said.
One of Khanmigo’s unique features for teachers is the usage tool that allows them to view student conversations and activity logs with Khanmigo.
When Khanmigo is asked a question in chat or used by a student to draft an essay in the “Writing Coach” application, a teacher can see what action he took, When those actions took place, and how much time the student spent on a particular one. Assignment
“It provides a window for adults to monitor kids through their homework and their workflow that didn’t exist before,” Cooper told Overtime.
“And I think for some students, for some kids, it can feel intrusive.”
In an interview with 60 Minutes, students at Hobart High School said they heard those sentiments from some of their classmates.
“Whatever you type into it, it sends it to your teacher … and I think that’s a really scary thing for students,” one student said.
Hobart High School District Superintendent Peggy Buffington believes this type of monitoring can save lives.
“One of the pieces of feedback we gave Sal. [Khan] There was only a safety net. ‘What if there are students who are struggling with some emotional stuff? Maybe suicidal?” he said to Cooper.
At the school’s request, Khan Academy created a feature to detect if a student is talking about hurting themselves or others and then notify the teacher immediately. If necessary, a mental health counselor can intervene to provide support.
“Do you really have instances where Khanmigo has raised a red flag about a student’s emotional health?” Cooper asked.
Buffington said he had.
“You see a lot of that in the writing…and then, immediately, the teacher sees it,” Buffington responded. “It’s just another level of awareness that maybe we didn’t know a student was internalizing… it could save a life.”
Cooper told Overtime that he spoke to Khan about privacy concerns surrounding that data.
“Obviously, this kind of information is very sensitive,” Cooper said.
Khan told 60 Minutes that Khan Academy will never sell the data collected by Khanmego, and will only use it internally to improve Khanmego.
“Anyone under the age of 18… if someone is talking about harming themselves, or harming others, or seems like they’re not in a good place, or… they’re with AI. Trying to write an inappropriate story, saying…. [we’re] Flag teachers [and] administrators, so that they can take action if needed,” said Khan.
Khanmigo is still a work in progress.
“It’s got work to do,” Cooper told Overtime.
Students at Hobart High School told 60 Minutes Khanmigo still makes mistakes, but Khan says it’s steadily getting better.
“There’s no need to put the genie back in the bottle… I don’t think there’s any doubt that it’s already there,” Cooper told Overtime.
“I think there’s a responsibility, certainly, a responsibility on tech companies to have ethics and checkpoints.”
“But it’s also on parents to just be involved and aware of what your kids are doing as much as you can.”
Cooper said the potential benefits of technology are clear to him as a father of two young boys.
“An AI tutor that’s with them in their home, that’s with them at their school… that they can consult and learn from… I mean, the potential is incredible. Sure.”
The above video was produced by Will Crookston. It was edited by Sean Kelly.