Khan Academy and Microsoft partner to offer a free AI assistant for teachers

Image: Khan Academy

Great news for K-12 educators in the US! Khan Academy's AI assistant, Khanmigo, is now free thanks to a new partnership with Microsoft. Previously costing US$4 per month, Khanmigo will be accessible through Microsoft's Azure infrastructure, reducing teacher workload and boosting learning experiences.

Khan Academy, renowned for its educational videos, is making Khanmigo free for teachers but will continue to charge school districts and other users for student access. But it is looking for ways to reduce costs.

Khanmigo goes beyond a simple chatbot. It offers AI-powered tools for generating quizzes and assignments, drafting lesson plans, and formulating letters of recommendation, among others. Khan Academy founder Sal Khan emphasizes the potential time savings for teachers, aiming to reduce prep work from 10-20 hours to just one to five hours.

The rise of AI in education initially sparked concerns about students using it to cheat. However, Khanmigo and similar tools act more like patient tutors, guiding students through problems and improving writing skills without completing the work for them.

Microsoft and Khan Academy are also teaming up to develop better AI-powered math tutors using Microsoft's Phi-3 small language models. These models are cheaper to run than large language models and potentially usable on local devices.

Khan Academy will contribute sample problems and detailed answers to refine the models' math capabilities. Additionally, Microsoft assures that Khan Academy user data won't be used for training these models.

Microsoft will integrate more Khan Academy content into its AI tools, providing educational value when users seek information. Khan Academy sees this as a positive way to make quality educational content readily available.

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