Post
![](data:image/svg+xml,<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="128" height="128"><rect fill-opacity="0"/></svg>)
Ethan Mollick
@emollick.bsky.social
The data so far on AI-as-a-tutor shows just letting students use AI chatbots can undermine education because the AI gives the illusion of learning
But AIs properly prompted to act like tutors, especially with instructor support, seem to be able to boost learning a lot through customized instruction
March 16, 2025 at 9:19 PM
35 reposts
7 quotes
156 likes
As someone who spends a lot of time working on using AI in education, it is frustrating that the debate becomes "AI destroys teachers" vs "AI destroys learning"
There is huge near-term promise for AI in education, but most people are not autodidacts in every subject who will just learn all with AI
The opportunities are so huge (and current issues in school caused by AI are so big) that it seems imperative that we, as a society, figure out how to best use AI in education as soon as we possibly can.
But we don't have answers yet. I wrote about this here: www.oneusefulthing.org/p/post-apoca...
A key set of problems AI can’t yet solve in education is that learning requires mental work & that we are bad at assessing whether we are learning. Many people have a subject in which they are intrinsically motivated to learn, but we generally seek short cuts that ultimately hurt our learning.
My personal take is clear: Gemini Thinking Experimental is by far the best teacher I have ever had.
It's not just great in answering my questions but gives great encouragement and feedback and notes when I seem to have really understood something.
Me with Gemini Thinking Experimental.
I feel that many don't fully appreciate how much LLMs can contribute to accessibility in science. My friend can now gain deep understanding in seconds of any paper that's way past my capabilities and explain it to me using terms and ideas I understand.
Absolutely ! It’s about how these tools are used. www.ascd.org/el/articles/...
I’d very largely agree: it’s about students’ agency, the learning environment, and the human educator overseeing the learning processes. 👍
The NotebookLM AI hosts did a pretty decent job summarizing the four academic papers, as well as your post from last year and the ASCD article (from further down the thread) (17 min) notebooklm.google.com/notebook/945...
Now of course I won't actually learn anything about the subject...