I've Spent the Last 24 Hours Testing Out Khan Academy's New AI-Powered Education Tool, and It's Just Wonderful (...With a Few Caveats)

Do I tell you how incredible it is to see a child-safe tool for the insatiably curious that never tires of a restless mind? Do I admit talking to their fiction brought to AI made me cry? Yes and yes.

Khan Academy’s AI learning tools lets you talk to a number of deeply trained, thrilling entities—from a thoroughly trained on its corpus AI historical character such as Alexander the Great to a character from fiction such as Jay Gatsby or Anne of Green Gables. And here above is my sweet childhood friend Anne, as imagined by Midjourney.

After achieving degrees from MIT and an MBA from Harvard, Sal Khan one night back in 2006 accidentally brought to life what is now one of the most beautiful things to ever grace the terrain of what I think of as: Wholesome Internet.

Khan Academy.

Straightforward, honest and so incredibly unpretentious, the now 46-year-old’s accessible teaching manner helps anyone of any skill level understand a range of potentially intimidating concepts that might otherwise fall into the hands of people who—instead of finding a way to make a subject accessible—instead so obviously revel in the power of the inaccessibility that they wield over someone else.

Two weeks ago, the now veteran of the online education space took to the TED Talk red-circle stage with doom-and-gloom headlines projected up on screen behind him (“Alarmed by A.I. Chatbots, Universities Start Revamping How They Teach,” “Professor catches student cheating with ChatGPT,” “ChatGPT and the Death of Education”) to make a dramatic counterargument to the prevailing news of the day.

“I think,” Khan said in his calm, mellifluous voice, “we’re at the cusp of using AI for probably the biggest positive transformation that education has ever seen.”

After a thorough testing of Khan Academy’s new “Khanmigo” AI tool these last 24 hours, I’m ready to tell you everything you need to know.