TL;DR Breakdown
- Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates predicts that AI chatbots will be able to teach children how to read and write within the next 18 months.
- Gates believes that AI chatbots will revolutionize the education sector and provide more affordable and accessible tutoring than traditional human tutoring.
- While some free versions of chatbots already exist, more advanced versions will likely be available for a fee.
Bill Gates, the co-founder of Microsoft, predicts that artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots could be capable of teaching children how to read and write within the next 18 months. Gates delivered a keynote speech at a digital learning conference in San Diego, where he suggested that AI will soon be able to serve as a tutor that is just as effective as any human teacher. AI chatbots, which have remarkable fluency in reading and writing, will help students to improve their writing skills and learn how to read. They will act as an assistant to teachers, offering feedback on writing assignments and assisting with mathematics.
According to Gates, teaching writing skills has traditionally been a challenge for computers. However, AI chatbots’ ability to recognize and recreate human-like language has changed the dynamic, making it possible to improve students’ writing skills in ways that technology could not previously accomplish. Gates is confident that technology will continue to improve, and within the next two years, AI chatbots will offer private tutoring to a broader range of students who may not be able to afford it.
Both OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Bard have shown rapid development in recent months and can now compete with human-level intelligence on certain standardized tests. While this has sparked excitement over the technology’s potential, it has also prompted debate regarding potential negative consequences. Gates has already utilized programs such as ChatGPT to improve his writing by taking advantage of the AI’s ability to quickly search through online style guides.
Gates acknowledged that teaching writing skills is a difficult task for computers because it requires a high cognitive exercise of narrative structure and prose clarity that is challenging for developers to replicate in code. However, chatbots’ ability to recognize and recreate human-like language has changed the situation, enabling the improvement of students’ writing skills in ways that technology previously could not accomplish.
Although it may be surprising that chatbots may excel at reading and writing before math, the latter is frequently used to develop AI technology, and chatbots often struggle with mathematical calculations. Gates has asked Microsoft AI developers why chatbots cannot perform relatively simple calculations, such as multiplying some numbers, and the answer he received is that AI requires improved reasoning abilities to handle the complexity of math calculations.
How AI chatbots will change education
Gates believes that chatbots will offer more affordable and accessible tutoring than traditional one-on-one human tutoring. While some free versions of chatbots already exist, more advanced versions will likely be available for a fee. Gates predicts that AI technology will improve within a couple of years, providing solutions for math-related problems as well.
In a recent blog post, Gates stated that the “development of AI is the most important technological advance in decades.” He emphasized three sectors that AI could transform: the workforce, healthcare, and education. He predicted that AI could transform education by delivering content that is tailored to student’s learning styles and by understanding what motivates individual students and what causes them to lose interest in subjects.
While chatbots can provide numerous benefits, some academics warn that the technology is not yet fully developed and can inadvertently introduce significant errors or misinformation. Gates maintains that AI technology must improve at reading and recreating human language to motivate students better before it can become a viable tutor.
Gates believes that AI chatbots will revolutionize the education sector and provide more affordable and accessible tutoring than traditional human tutoring. While the technology still needs improvement before it can become a viable tutor, Gates is confident that within the next two years, AI chatbots will offer solutions for math-related problems and make private tutoring available to a more extensive range of students who may not be able to afford it.
