“Where will all the teachers come from? Who says, however, that all teachers must be human beings or even animate?” ~ Isaac Asimov
Andrew Martin is the name of a fictional positronic android in the 1999 film entitled The Bicentennial Man. Inspired by a 1976 science fiction story written by Isaac Asimov, the award-wining motion picture invites viewers to philosophically consider the relationship between artificial intelligence (A.I.) and humanity. The Bicentennial Man additionally explores issues of servitude, prejudice, intellectual freedom, sex, love, mortality, and eternal life. Ironically, over the course of his two-century quest of learning about the convolutions of human interactions, Andrew, brilliantly played by the late actor, Robin Williams, teaches as much as he learns.
For those acutely engaged in the praxis of pedagogy, the media’s belated preoccupation with the irresolute effects of A.I. seems overly fretful, if not, hyperbolic. Pausing research could actually make humanity more vulnerable by allowing aberrant nations to develop their own A.I. systems for nefarious purposes. While prudence is, indeed, required, the judicious use of A.I. inspired technology should be energetically pursued as it has the capacity to produce sweeping positive consequence – especially in the field of education. Like Andrew, the Android, who was initially considered perfidious by his owners, A.I. can help teach as well as learn.
The Brewbaker Primary School in Montgomery, Alabama is a premier example of A.I.’s valuable educational corollaries. After only two months of using an A.I. enabled reading program called Amira, second grade students remarkably doubled the number of words they could correctly read aloud per minute. Amira is the namesake of an instructional A.I. system that aims to improve reading ability by furnishing students a personal literacy tutor. The program listens to children as they read short stories aloud and simultaneously tracks several literacy skills, including how well they recognize sight words, their ability to decode words, and their vocabulary. Students are then given practice activities that target skills that will improve their score.
Amira is an example of the “New Teachers,” the “Bicentennial Educators.” She is a calm and somewhat stoic online female avatar with short brown hair and a green sweater, that encourages children to re-read sentences and sound-out challenging words. The asynchronous interactive program subsequently provides directions for practice tasks and then congratulates children when their assignments are successfully finished. Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University conclude that Amira can substantially boost vocabulary as well as reading levels. In one study, third grade English language learners who used the program increased their vocabularies more than students who worked one-on-one with a human tutor. Even students with English as their first language experienced impressive results.
As a consequence of these and other benefits, more than 1000 schools across the country have adopted Amira as part of their literacy enhancement strategies. The interactive online tutor is used by more than 2 million students in 900 districts and 15 countries across the globe. The sophisticated computer program was designed in part by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH) and based on reading research at several universities including Carnegie Mellon, Johns Hopkins, and Texas Health Sciences. The platform’s high-tech designers recommend that Amira should be used by students for a total of 40-minutes each week over the course of two to three days.
Like Alabama, Texas provided its pandemic, home-bound students its own A.I. enabled computer-based reading platform called Amplio. Included in the Global Silicon Valley (GSV) List of the world’s 150 most transformative private companies in education, the Amplio Special Education Learning Platform improves reading skills and serves as a reading intervention program specifically for literacy-deficient students and those with disabilities. The program provides digital therapies for children, including speech-language and dyslexia intervention. Like Amira, after only two months of using Ampilo, second grade students doubled the number of words they could correctly read aloud per minute. In addition, teachers reported that many second graders also reached a third-grade level of proficiency.
The growing number of A.I. enabled early reading products come at a time when many young children have already been plunged into the world of online learning during the coronavirus pandemic. Experts caution, however, that there are still elements of teaching students to read that a computer cannot replicate. Human teachers, for example, are able to easily adjust for young readers with speech impediments or dialects.
As a result of this and other relational variances, many educators are not convinced that a computer, no matter how “intelligent,” could teach as well as a human. While most believe that an A.I. based program is not necessarily a bad idea as a supplement, they worry about using technology to totally replace a teacher’s personal interaction. Consequently, superintendents caution that if their school districts decide to use A.I. based technologies, they should avoid using them in isolation from human interaction and to draw reading-level conclusions.
In his article, “Understanding the Four Types of AI, from Reactive Robots to Self-Aware Beings” (2016), Arend Hintze, researcher and professor of integrative biology at Michigan State University, suggests that the evolving educational capabilities of A.I systems can be clustered into four primary categories: (1) Reactive Machines, (2) Limited Memory, (3) Theory of Mind, and (4) Self-Awareness Systems.
Hintze describes Reactive Machines as A.I. systems that “have no memory and are task specific, meaning that an input always delivers the same output.” As this type of A.I. program is reactive, it is, for the most part, reliable and works well in inventions like IBM Deep Blue, a chess-playing supercomputer that defeated international grandmaster Garry Kasparov. Reactive Machines, however, do not have the ability to predict future outcomes unless they have been previously fed appropriate information.
Unlike Reactive Machines, Limited Memory A.I. Systems can look into the past and monitor specific objects or situations over time. According to Hintze, “these observations are subsequently programmed into the A.I. system so that its actions can perform based on both past and present moment data.” The algorithms used in Limited Memory systems imitate the way the neurons in the human brain work and allow the A.I. to improve with new data over time. A good example of a Limited Memory A.I. appliance is the self-driving car that observes other vehicles for their speed, direction, and proximity, and thereby, reacts accordingly.
Generative A.I. technologies such as ChatGPT could be considered a special case of Limited Memory systems as they are not merely reactive but can adjust and modify their responses based on changing circumstances. They are not thinking machines and do not possess self-awareness but have the ability to produce content that appears reasonably human-like. They are designed to piece together responses based on that pattern recognition.
While Reactive Machines and Limited Memory algorithms exist, Theory of Mind A.I. Systems are currently in development and are the primary focus of societal debate and anxiety. According to Hintze, “if (and when) developed, Theory of Mind A.I. could have the potential to understand the world and how other entities have thoughts and emotions.” Researchers speculate that, in the future, Theory of Mind systems could be able to simulate human relationships and, thereby, understand intentions and predict behavior.
The final step of A.I.’s evolution is the development of systems that can form representations about themselves. To do so, however, researchers will have to not only understand consciousness but fabricate machines that have it. “Conscious beings, according to Hintze, “are aware of themselves, know about their internal states, and are able to predict feelings of others.” Consequently, the author refers to his fourth and final category of artificial intelligence as Self-Awareness Systems.
While humanity is certainly far from creating mechanisms that are self-aware, Hintze suggests that researchers should focus their efforts “toward understanding memory, learning and the ability to base decisions on past experiences. This is an important step to understand human intelligence on its own,” he insists. “And it is crucial if we want to design or evolve machines that are more than exceptional at classifying what they see in front of them.”
Would the evolution of technology that is self-aware lead these systems to develop a conscious understanding of their existence? And, more importantly, what would be the impact of such technological advancement on humanity? Aside from enhancing literacy skills, could they be harnessed for other pedagogical purposes? Could they become the “New Bicentennial Teachers”?
According to numerous reports, nearly seventy percent (70%) of 10-year-olds in low and middle-income countries and communities cannot read and understand a simple story. According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress released by the U.S. Department of Education, more than 65% of eighth graders in American public schools are not proficient in reading and writing. Thankfully, apart from enhancing reading skills, A.I. can make text content more accessible to children with disabilities. While it is true, that there are unknown consequences to all technology, A.I. enabled instructional system offers extraordinary ways to increase literacy rates around the world.
According to Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, “artificial intelligence and A.I. chatbots are on track to help children learn to read and hone their writing skills in 18 months’ time.” In his keynote talk at the 2023 ASU+GSV Summit in San Diego, Gates insisted that A.I. “will get to that ability, to be as good a tutor as any human ever could.” Today’s chatbots have “incredible fluency at being able to read and write, which will soon help them teach students to improve their own reading and writing in ways that technology never could before.” Gates conjectured, “at first, we’ll be most stunned by how it helps with reading, being a reading research assistant, and giving you feedback on writing.” His comments have sparked both excitement and debate over A.I.’s possible destructive consequences.
Technophile academics are impressed with A.I.’s ability to summarize and offer feedback. They are fascinated with chatbot systems that can help students write as well as author full essays on their own. Luddites, however, are not so sanguine. They warn that as the technology evolves it can inadvertently introduce significant errors. It may take some time, but Gates is confident that the technology will improve. “If you just took the next 18 months, the A.I.s will come in as a teacher’s aide and give feedback on writing,” he insists, “and then they will amp up what we’re able to do in math.”
In his insightful article, “A Vision for the New Teachers: In Honor of Isaac Asimov’s Essay the New Teachers” (2018), author, and artificial intelligence social robotics communication specialist, William Barry contends that A.I. presents an opportunity to improve the quality of life. Barry goes much further than Gates, however, by suggesting that A.I. assistants are “in the early phases of becoming our partners in life.” While he does suggest that “this is not to say A.I. artifacts will necessarily be a best friend, speak at a wedding, be recognized as having rights, or be a victim of extreme anthropomorphism . . . for another group of people, A.I. will become trusted friends and cared for to a similar degree as fellow human beings.”
Unlike Gates and Barry, Tesla CEO Elon Musk cautions that “a pause is necessary to guard against the dangers of A.I. development.” In fact, Musk and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, have signed a letter calling for a six-month halt to work on AI systems that will certainly rival human intelligence. The letter, which has more than 13,500 luddite signatures, expressed fear that the “dangerous race” to develop programs that could led to negative consequences. “If we build these devices to take care of everything for us, eventually they’ll think faster than us and they’ll get rid of the slow humans to run companies more efficiently,” Wozniak told the Australian Financial Review in 2015. “Will we be the gods?” he asked. “Will we be the family pets? Or will we be ants that get stepped on?”
Like Musk and Wozniak, Raymond Kurzweil, a computer scientist, author, inventor, and futurist, believes that “within a few decades, machine intelligence will surpass human intelligence, leading to The Singularity – technological change so rapid and profound it represents a rupture in the fabric of human history.” Singularity is a popular A.I. tagline that describes a time when artificial intelligence will outpace humans so much that its growth becomes uncontrollable and irreversible, resulting in unpredictable changes to human civilization.
In his book, The Singularity is Near (2023), Kurzweil explores how technology will refashion the human race in the decades to come. “One cubic inch of nanotube circuitry, once fully developed,” he writes, “would be up to one hundred million times more powerful than the human brain.” Time will tell who is correct: Gates and Barry, or Musk, Wozniak, Kurzweil, and their luddite associates?
While there is cause to be wary about its evolution, artificial intelligence is currently revolutionizing the way educators measure literacy and improve reading comprehension. The use of these pedagogical systems can help educators and researchers effectively diagnose and address reading difficulties in students. Through A.I. assisted reading comprehension assessments, teachers and tutors can gather a deeper insight into learning patterns and, thereby, help students overcome barriers to reading comprehension.
Traditionally, measuring reading comprehension has been a time-consuming process that requires a trained human evaluator to assess the reader’s understanding of a given text. However, AI has created new opportunities to automate and optimize the process of measuring reading comprehension. One of the most promising applications of AI in this field is the development of Natural Language Processing (NLP) tools that can accurately analyze the linguistic structure, context, and syntax of a text to identify its meaning and gauge the level of comprehension.
With the help of A.I. technology, educators can use automated tools to assess students’ reading comprehension more accurately and quickly compared to traditional methods. A.I. can analyze a student’s reading performance in real-time and provide them with immediate feedback to help them improve their understanding of the text. By tracking a student’s progress through A.I. supported assessments, educators can additionally identify areas that need improvement, find common patterns in students’ mistakes and tailor learning plans to suit individual students’ learning requirements.
A.I. tools for reading comprehension assessments can also benefit researchers who seek to identify strengths and weaknesses in learners. They can employ the technology to identify areas that require further research or to identify patterns in students’ reading performance. By using advanced algorithms and machine learning, A.I. can help researchers identify areas for improvement in instructional materials or processes.
Another key advantage of integrating A.I. assisted reading comprehension assessments into instructional practices is that they support the application of Adaptive Learning Technology (ALT), a pedagogical method that provides customized resources and activities to address a student’s unique learning needs. Technophiles predict that by merging A.I. assisted reading comprehension assessments within ALT systems, educators will be able to ensure that each student receives relevant and personalized content that supports their individual learning needs.
The philosopher and mentor Socrates affirmed that the definitive purpose of education is to “know thyself” and to be “guided in life by love, care, and curiosity.” In fact, the ensemble of mentor relationships between Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, and Alexander the Great shaped human history by understanding the power of giving and receiving guidance. The knowledge transfer channels, and discourse amongst these mentor/student life guides was so dynamic that they all went on to form legacies of their own. Their lives are a testament to the notion that human mentors will always exceed the capacity of A.I. teachers in helping students experience the profound significance of such education.
Despite the preeminence of mentorship, the future of education will undoubtably entail a partnership of person, algorithm, and machine. The wisdom, embedded within the pedagogical process, however, is beyond the understanding of A.I. enabled android. The vocation of teaching is profoundly a human enterprise, and, regardless of the advancements in the field of artificial intelligence, humans will not be eliminated from its praxis.
In the final analysis, the question is not whether a positronic android Andrew, or the asynchronous online tutors Amira and Amplio can evolve to achieve “Self-awareness” or “Singularity.” The real issue is whether an A.I. entity could ever ask, “why am I here, what was I meant to be,” or “is this all that I am?” Remarkably, like the Bicentennial Man, Issac Asimov claimed that he never asked himself these questions. Until A.I. can do so and answer them, they may be legitimately recognized as the “new teachers” . . . but certainly not interminable mentors.
Dr. Frank Marangos is CEO and Founder of OINOS Educational Consulting. He received a Doctors Degree in Adult Education (Ed.D.) from NOVA Southeastern University (Ft. Lauderdale, FL) and a Doctorate in Ministry and Childhood Education (D.Min.) from Southern Methodist University (Dallas, TX). He is also a Certified Charitable Estate Planner (FCEP).
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