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Looking ahead, Khan envisions AI acting as a concierge for students and even parents. Photo: iStock
Learn more about how families can harness AI to support learning in healthy, thoughtful ways at Sal Khan’s ParentMap webinar, Tuesday, Nov. 18 live at noon PST and on-demand! Sign up online for this and other ParentEd Talks.
Around 2004, one of Sal Khan’s cousins was struggling with math. She was in New Orleans, he was in Boston, so he started tutoring her online. Her scores improved, word spread, and soon he was tutoring up to a dozen relatives in his spare time while working as an analyst at a hedge fund.
Looking for a way to scale his help, Khan began experimenting with technology. “A friend suggested I make videos. I thought that was a dumb idea; YouTube was for cats playing piano!” he recalls. “But I gave it a shot.”
By 2009, Khan had launched Khan Academy, a nonprofit with a mission to provide “a free world-class education for anyone anywhere.” A year later the Gates Foundation and Google provided the organization’s first major philanthropic funding.
Today, Khan Academy serves more than 180 million registered users in over 50 languages, reaching learners in nearly every country. Khan’s goal is to create “a safety-net education system for kids who might not have access to great classrooms or any classroom at all.”
Ahead of his Nov. 18 ParentEd Talk, “Raising Future-Ready Kids: What Parents Should Know About AI,” Khan spoke with us about how artificial intelligence is reshaping learning and what it means for the next generation.
The role of AI in the future of education
Khan is clear on one point: AI alone isn’t the future of learning. “The real learning happens in a very traditional way, when students practice at their learning edge and get immediate feedback,” he says. AI, he explains, simply personalizes that process. Khan Academy’s AI-powered tutor, Khanmigo, supports teachers, districts and students alike.
“Now that a teacher can have a conversation with AI about what’s going on in their class and AI can surface insights, we’re seeing evidence that it’s helping teachers engage their classrooms even better,” he says.
He believes AI can ease workloads and reduce burnout by helping with lesson planning, grading and administrative tasks.
Despite fears to the contrary, teachers aren’t going anywhere. Khan points out that similar concerns arose in the early 1900s when textbooks were introduced. “Now it’s hard to find a teacher who wouldn’t view a textbook as essential,” he says.
He believes AI can ease workloads and reduce burnout by helping with lesson planning, grading and administrative tasks. “It gives teachers more time and energy for themselves and their students,” he says. “If I go to every teacher on the planet and say we’re going to get you two or three tireless teaching assistants to support you in everything you do, they’d say absolutely.” That’s what AI can do, says Khan.
What’s next for AI in the classroom
Looking ahead, Khan envisions AI acting as a concierge for students and even parents. “[AI tools] will help navigate data, guide students on what to do next and serve as ongoing support,” he says. “Teachers might get real-time help from AI whispering in their ear, ‘Go support this student,’ ‘Praise that one,’ or ‘Here’s a problem that addresses this question.’”
To thrive in that future, Khan says, students must learn how to ask the right questions, a skill familiar to anyone who has typed a vague prompt into ChatGPT. They’ll also need to use AI responsibly, learning how to research, verify information and interpret results.
Curiosity and openness, Khan believes, will be key to helping kids and parents navigate this new frontier.
‘Scary but exciting’
It’s natural for parents to feel uneasy. Are kids cheating? Are they relying on machines instead of thinking for themselves? Could AI threaten parents’ jobs, let alone kids’ future jobs?
Khan acknowledges the uncertainty. “It’s a scary but exciting moment,” he says. But Khan believes that being fluent in AI will make it easier for our students to break into almost any field.
He offers an example: “If a kid said, ‘I want to work for the New York Yankees,’ I’d say, good luck. But if you have really good AI skills? You might have an in.”
Curiosity and openness, Khan believes, will be key to helping kids and parents navigate this new frontier.
To hear more from Sal Khan, register for his upcoming ParentEd Talk on Nov. 18.
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