Live data from Hacker News

Building a real-time AI tutor for 5-year-olds

ello.com

201–210 of 460 posts

Re: Building a real-time AI tutor for 5-year-olds

#201
I think teaching a child to trust an LLM from a formative age is horrifically irresponsible.

If anything, an app should be made where a child learns to correct an LLM's mistakes and learn that it isn't trustworthy.

Actually, better, don't put an LLM in front of children. At all.

EDIT: If a use case is for children who can't afford good education, then use an LLM to make educational materials for children, review them, and make them available for free. After all, the contents are ripped off from human educators anyway.

Re: Building a real-time AI tutor for 5-year-olds

#203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"reflexive anti AI luddite attitude" That's awfully reductive there, champ. Most critiques of AI are based on some combination of observed failings of the technology, observed failings of the tech industry writ large, and healthy skepticism in the face of Yet Another Tech Industry Hype Typhoon. Anyway, the burden of proof isn't on skeptics, it's on the technology and it's proponents, so let's see some receipts before…

>Most critiques of AI are based on some combination of observed failings of the technology Most critiques of AI are based on experience with the cheapest AI available a year ago, by midwits unable to recognize that AI's performance on the Putnam, IMO and bar exam makes it far smarter than they are by almost every metric that was traditionally used to measure intelligence.

> Most critiques of AI are based on experience with the cheapest AI available a year ago, by midwits

You don't even need to use AI at all to have valid critiques of it

Plenty of other people are showing its flaws daily by replacing their entire personalities with AI slop

Oh it can do some impressive stuff sure. It is still bad for society

Re: Building a real-time AI tutor for 5-year-olds

#204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This comment looks like pure astroturfing.

This whole thread is fucking scary. How are people even remotely positive about any of this shit is beyond me. Educate your kids, stop delegating the important stuff.

It's weird. I get that growing up in a nurturing household is a privilege, but I'm not sure the answer is to hook up kids to AI. Maybe some form of it could be beneficial, but it just seems too ripe for abuse, and/or too easy to have unintended consequences.

Re: Building a real-time AI tutor for 5-year-olds

#206

I'm torn about this. I primarily think that a a kid who won't pick books is a failure of the family of not noticing their interests. When i noticed my oldest 3 yr old was obsessed about cars, i bought him a car encyclopedia. He probably could not read most words or did not understand them. But pretty soon he was telling me about car models that i did not even recognize myself. And as i saw interests, i kept feeding t…

Grok?!?!

Re: Building a real-time AI tutor for 5-year-olds

#207

I'm torn about this. I primarily think that a a kid who won't pick books is a failure of the family of not noticing their interests. When i noticed my oldest 3 yr old was obsessed about cars, i bought him a car encyclopedia. He probably could not read most words or did not understand them. But pretty soon he was telling me about car models that i did not even recognize myself. And as i saw interests, i kept feeding t…

This sounds psychotic. An over-controlling fedora's approximation of what good academic parenting looks like. You just want to create your D&D partner. You'll probably succeed lol.

Re: Building a real-time AI tutor for 5-year-olds

#209
Yet again another product that could’ve used AI to help with a problem but basically puts everything in AI hands and calls a day.

AI is great for learning, but you know what’s most important thing for children as part of their learning? Presence of a parent.

Why not make this an assistant for parent & child learning session, where you can use it as encyclopedia lookup or permutation / generation of an exercise or even cheatsheet / checklist for your learning session?

I think there’s huge value in being able to have such thing, where you don’t have to pull out your phone when doing something with your child and instead you could ask that assistant for a lookup online, but putting child in front of a screen and putting it’s self-development in a hands of AI is just irresponsible, lazy and quite frankly dangerous

Re: Building a real-time AI tutor for 5-year-olds

#210
post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"AI-based tutoring is going to raise the average level of education and literacy in the world" Without exception every claim made to date about tech boosting educational outcomes has been provably false. As in, adding tech to the education process results in measurably less education, and this finding seems to track across all age cohorts. Furthermore, unless parents have significant education credentials they aren't…

In practice, yes. In theory a machines can do about everything a human can, but better and cheaper. One of the main constraint for education is available tutor time, see e.g. Bloom's 2 sigma experiment. Obviously there are many pitfalls to overcome at the moment, but eventually machines will become better teachers than teachers, and not many parents will send their kids to public schools if the kids can learn much fa…

> In practice, yes. In theory a machines can do about everything a human can, but better and cheaper.

If you could time-travel back to your 5y old self, would you prefer to be taught by AI tutor given the current state o/t art, or taught by whatever teachers you did have when you were 5? (with all the existing hallucination, breaking through guardrails etc problems of current AI in mind)

If you'd have a ~5y old yourself, what would your prefer for your kid?

> One of the main constraint for education is available tutor time, see e.g. Bloom's 2 sigma experiment.

Interesting! Also note a caveat (quoted from Wikipedia):

The phenomenon's associated problem, as described by Bloom, was to "find methods of group instruction as effective as one-to-one tutoring".

Perhaps it would be better to focus on that problem?

> and not many parents will send their kids to public schools if the kids can learn much faster at home while being happier.

How do you see peer-to-peer contact in that scenario? Toddlers on a video conference call hours a day? Physical contact is a basic need for humans. Especially kids.

> eventually machines will become better teachers than teachers

Ah yes: WILL (and although likely, not guaranteed). How about re-evaluate our options & stragegies once that's the case?

Post reply on HN