Aristotle is back
AI and education
It was a video about Steve Jobs, talking in 1983 about how jealous he was that the Macedonian emperor and conqueror, Alexander the Great, had been mentored by the Greek philosopher Aristotle.
For Steve Jobs, personal computers represented an opportunity for humanity, no longer without a living, flesh-and-blood Aristotle, to have a digital version of Aristotle. A kind of virtual coach, teacher, scholar and friend, who would always be there to help us become more, through the knowledge he would allow us to access.
When I connected what I had heard in this video with everything I have learned about generative artificial intelligence I thought that perhaps Aristotle had returned and that Steve Jobs knew what he was talking about when he envisioned the potential of personal computers.
The fact that these tools (ChatGPT, Gemini, META AI, Copilot, etc.) are like a virtual mentor that is there to help us learn, reflect, analyze better, philosophize, create, etc., is something that gives me a lot of optimism about the future....
I recently read the book Brave New Words by Salman Khan (founder of Khan Academy) and I could say it was the best book I read in 2024. It is a book that allows you to better understand what Generative Artificial Intelligence is, in general, and how it will impact and transform education, in particular.
One of the main ideas of this book has to do with what Steve Jobs envisioned in the 1980s. The potential and ability to have a technological tool that was there for us, with which we could learn, think and reflect.
24/7 personalized tutor
Generative artificial intelligence (ChatGPT, Gemini, META AI, Copilot, etc.) allows us to create tutors that adapt to each of us, according to our learning pace, needs and style, providing personalized explanations and support at any time of the day. Imagine being able to learn physics with the help of a virtual tutor in the style of Albert Einstein!
Detecting gaps in knowledge
Imagine that Albert Einstein's virtual spirit, in addition to teaching you, can detect your weak areas and, based on that, can share exercises or content that can reinforce those weak points.
Personalized learning in real time
As we interact with our virtual tutors, the AI adjusts the content and difficulty of the lessons in real time, ensuring constant improvement and real learning.
Fewer educational barriers
Accessible from anywhere in the world, these virtual tutors eliminate geographical and economic barriers, democratizing access to quality education. A daily ChatGPT conversation on quantum computing can be even more effective than taking a face-to-face class at any university.
Soft skills
AI, in addition to teaching you things like how ancient trees have a kind of natural internet that allows them to communicate with each other, can teach you how to think better, be more organized, productive and solve your problems better.
There is a lot of anxiety and fear about the development of these tools that say they can replace us, even exterminate us.
However, what I think is left for each of us is to ask ourselves how we can take advantage of them to improve our personal lives (communicate better, be more assertive, etc.), educational lives (learn a new language, strengthen our mathematical knowledge, etc.) and professional lives (how to be more productive, manage our time better, etc.).
I highly recommend reading Salman Khan's book.