Interesting concept, and definitely something that many fields will be considering in the near future. Education is one that AI will have a particularly meaningful impact on, and Khan's work hones in on it.

There are way too many voices weighing in on AI in schools, but Sal Khan is the voice that needs to be amplified. As soon as I read the first few chapters I was pushing the title into professional discussions. There are so many people who "think" they know about AI, but in education, we are not leaning into the conversation of how we can bring greater equity to our students. There is no doubt greater exposure to this text will help to demystify applications for harnessing AI for teaching, learning, and coaching. Excellent book.

BRAVE NEW WORDS by Salman Khan describes his views on "How AI Will Revolutionize Education (and Why That's a Good Thing)." Unfortunately, there are not enough specifics to really guide interested teachers or parents. Like everything else, AI will have an adoption curve and this text does not help innovators and early adopters convince others in their school system of the potential value of AI. Khan recently spoke about his new book at a Family Action Network event with Angela Duckworth. It was only around minute 50 (video to be posted soon) that he seemed to spark enthusiasm with ideas about using AI to facilitate break out groups or thesis development. In my experience, one needs to really show the majority of teachers how a new tech could be applied in their field before there is widespread use. It is very confusing for students if different teachers are not making tech accessible in similar ways. For starters, K-12 is a huge range; plus, as Khan points out, this is an extremely complex undertaking due to concerns about student privacy, cheating, assessments, job security, etc. Khan touches on these points in his new text and ends with a general "call for educated bravery" wherein "each of us has an obligation to make sure that we use this technology responsibly."

The field is in flux as the recent announcement by Microsoft and Khan Academy indicates; although they are making the service free for teachers there would still be charges for students and parents. This is a business model – even if Khan Academy is a non-profit with ambitious goals. Seems like more affluent districts will have the infrastructure (e.g., IT consultants and specialized tech staff) in place to at least trial this tech, but doesn’t that (temporarily?) reinforce disparity in education? Could a condition of use be an arrangement with a "sister" district? Or, what incentives could State Boards of Education be encouraged to establish?

More info on Sal Khan and his latest endeavors concerning AI are provided in this Ted Talk:

https://www.ted.com/talks/sal_khan_how_ai_could_save_not_destroy_education

Washington Post commentator Josh Tyrangiel says that Khanamigo is "the first AI software I’m excited for my kids to use." The debate will continue and giving students reliable one-on-one tutoring – meeting them where they are – is exciting. Figuring out an equitable distribution mechanism is key.

other links:
https://www.familyactionnetwork.net/events/brave-new-words-how-ai-will-revolutionize-education-and-why-thats-a-good-thing/
https://news.microsoft.com/source/features/ai/khan-academy-and-microsoft-partner-to-expand-access-to-ai-tools/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/02/22/artificial-intelligence-sal-khan/

I find this book to be insightful and beneficial. I do believe Khan is hyper optimistic but I also do not believe that's necessarily a negative thing as long as readers go into reading it with an open and critical mindset. This book is a great way to enter the discussion of AI and how it can work alongside educators and in the. I would definitely recommend reading it.

In Brave New Words, Khan Academy founder Salman Khan presents an optimistic and practical vision for how artificial intelligence, particularly large language models like GPT, will revolutionize education in the coming years. As a respected pioneer in educational technology, Khan draws on his deep expertise to persuasively argue that rather than fearing AI, educators should embrace it as a powerful tool to personalize learning, support teachers, and unlock the potential of every student.

Khan's book serves as an invaluable guide for anyone seeking to understand the implications of AI for learning - from parents and teachers to administrators and policymakers. He accessibly explains the core technologies underpinning this AI revolution and lays out specific ways they can be leveraged to provide each learner with adaptive instruction and feedback tailored to their unique needs, interests and pace.

While acknowledging that AI is still an imperfect technology, Khan compellingly makes the case that its thoughtful adoption in classrooms will enhance, rather than replace, human interaction and creativity. He envisions AI as a tool to empower teachers, inspire students, expand access to quality education, and equip learners with the skills needed to thrive in an increasingly digital future.

Beyond the classroom, Khan explores the broader societal implications of educational AI - from its potential to make hiring more meritocratic to the ethical considerations in its development and deployment. His insights provide a valuable roadmap for how we can proactively shape these technologies as an overwhelming force for good.

At its core, Brave New Words is a profoundly hopeful book, reflecting Khan's lifelong passion to harness technology to improve lives through learning. While educational AI undoubtedly brings new risks and challenges that require ongoing vigilance, Khan convincingly argues the opportunities for expanding educational access and efficacy are simply too great to ignore. For anyone who cares about the future of education, this book is essential reading.

Much of the material written about the impact of artificial intelligence on higher education has been filled with overly pessimistic doom and gloom. Brave New Words presents a breath of air in that sense, clearly explaining how the Khan Academy non-profit has partnered with OpenAI in order to offer the best possible integration of AI and education. How they're approaching it is definitely admirable and I'm happy to see someone is taking a positive approach to this.

If all you've seen in the headlines are negatives about AI and education, this book will provide a very welcome alternative view. In short, I actually think every educator should read this book, considering the educational role that Khan Academy plays now and will likely continue to play in the future as it adopts AI.

Nonetheless, this book is so optimistic about how widespread AI use can be and the number of problems it will tackle, that this actually raised new concerns for me. These go far beyond the typical concerns about plagiarism and replacing teachers that have been written about most frequently. I'll give a few examples.

1. Khan sees this technology being used not just in the classroom, but as a way to help parents monitor their children's progress, offer therapy, and even facilitate conversation among families. These are helpful, it's argued, because of the anxiety of speaking in class, or the difficulty of getting our kids to tell us about their day. The book only briefly notes the negative of more screen time here, but there has already been serious research that raises concerns far beyond that. Sherry Turkle, for example, has written in the book Alone Together about how when we converse with machines precisely because it is easier, we lose the important skills that are needed to communicate face-to-face with others. If we can't converse with our own kids without AI intervention, we have lost something significant, not gained something. Meta (and other researchers) are already working on designing glasses that can listen to your conversation and then tell you how to respond to those with whom you're speaking.

2. This book also sets up some straw men when discussing why people don't like standardized testing. The main concern isn't about the actual standardization, it's the way it has led to explicitly teaching to the test, and how student promotion to the next grade level, teacher evaluations (and their associated employment), and school district funding have all been linked to the outcomes of these tests. Despite that oversight, Khan does suggest some approaches to adopting AI that would mitigate at least some of these challenges.

3. The vision presented for the future of the job application and hiring process is rosier than I could possibly ever imagine, and doesn't note the ways AI has already made this process dystopian in the present. Already, we have big data and AI finding absurd correlations, such as the fact that people who submit applications using a web browser installed by default tend to leave a job more quickly than those who install a different browser. We also have AI programs that analyze applicants' social media presence and the content of that to create reports about their predicted personality and leadership skills. This goes beyond the advice to avoid posting pictures of yourself drinking or even avoiding being on social media (that was so 2010s). Instead, it means that to have a better chance in being hired, you must have a social media presence, you must positively interact with a network of others in a publicly visible way, and your writing patterns must match some personality profile a black-boxed AI has determined will mean you're a team player (this review probably doesn't match that). But even these already existing uses of AI are not addressed.

4. Near the end, Khan argues the invention of generative AI means we're either heading to a Star Trek like utopia or a populist hell. I've been re-reading Fahrenheit 451 with my kids. I'll juxtapose two quotes.

"It [generative AI] could reformulate the news article they are reading closer to their grade level, potentially leaving out age-inappropriate details." -- Brave New Words, Salman Khan

"Classics cut to fifteen-minute radio shows, then cut again to fill a two-minute book column, winding up at last as a ten- or twelve-line dictionary resume... Many were those whose sole knowledge of Hamlet... was a one-page digest." - Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury

To conclude, I do think this is a book everyone should read. I'm in awe of Khan's optimism, and it's worth hearing how he describes his vision. At the same time, it worries me that someone who spends so much time thinking about this has either skipped over or chosen not to discuss some of the serious challenges (not fluffy think pieces) that are already present in our world due to AI.