A researcher at Stanford University wants to bring “agents” to the classrooms: “What happens when a teacher is asked to teach something completely new?”

Kira Learning, a startup in the field of educational technology led by the founder of Google Brain, the teacher at Stanford University and the artificial intelligence researcher Andrew NG, has launched a new platform that brings “agents” to the classroom, reports Business Insider.

Kira Learning states that the agents you create will take over repetitive tasks that often consume teachers for hours. Agents can help correct the works, plan lessons and analyze the class discussions to provide perspectives on students who have results, but also to those who have difficulty. The platform also offers one-on-one meditations for students.

The so-called “agents” have are artificial intelligence systems or programs that can act autonomous or semi-autonomous to reach certain objectives, making decisions based on a set of previous rules, data or learning. Unlike a simple chatbot or passive algorithm, an agent AI is designed to “do things” without transmitting instructions every step.

Kira Learning argues that its purpose is to release teachers from routine tasks, so that they can focus on modeling the learning process, and not only limited to transmitting information.

As artificial intelligence is increasingly integrated into the educational environment, NG sees this change as part of a wider transformation of the role of teachers.

“Artificial intelligence contributes to the redefinition of what it means to be a good teacher,” he told Business Insider. “Traditionally, we expected teachers to be experts in their field. But how the labor market changes rapidly, and schools introduce new subjects to prepare students for a constantly evolving world, what happens when a teacher is asked to teach something completely new, such as computer science, without years of experience in that field?”

Andrew NG's company has developed agents of both students and teachers

To help teachers adapt quickly, Kira has developed tutors to support them in deepening new subjects. He also created educational assistants to help them in the classroom. In 2023, the company concluded a partnership with Tennessee – one of the first US states to adopt such law – to implement the platform in all public and high school public schools.

Since then, the platform has been adopted in hundreds of school districts in several US states.

Currently, the company expands its platform to cover all subjects. The new suite of agents will contribute to achieving the final objective of the company: personalizing the learning process.

NG is a foreground figure in the field of artificial intelligence and education. Has launched companies specialized in educational technology such as Coursera and Deeplearning.

In an interview with Forbes in 2014, almost a decade before artificial intelligence knows the explosive growth, he stated that you have “the potential to release humanity from many of the mental chorus.”

“Friction” in conversations between ai and students

However, what “mental chore” means in education is less clear, especially since many teachers and students are afraid that technology could lead to skills.

In a certain sense, Kira undermines the basic mechanisms of generative artificial intelligence to eliminate routine activities and improve the learning process.

Kira Learning states that one of his goals is to introduce “friction” in students' conversations with AI, in the right moments, so that they have a productive difficulty and truly learn from experience.

In practice, this means that the Kira platform can guide the student step by step by a difficult problem, adapting to his level of understanding.

Agents developed by Kira use this information to provide the teacher to perspective on students' capabilities, building maps of knowledge to determine what I know and what students do not know in a certain subject.