Wednesday, 30 November, 2022 UTC
Summary
“The human condition is being held back by 500,000 well-meaning average algebra teachers. Instead of 500,000 algebra teachers, going through the same motion over and over again, what you need is 1–10 really good algebra teachers, and they need to do it a billion times a day, for free. And if we do that, there’s no reason you can’t get infinite education. Infinite education to everybody with no constraint.”A never-ending army of cloned virtual teachers can do the job.
This is a quote from Michael Saylor, CEO of MicroStrategy and a prominent holder of Bitcoin, in a conversation with Lex Fridman that illustrates a vision on how the digitalization of education will massively benefit society.
The main value propositions of digital education (e-learning) have been quality and accessibility: having the best teachers, always available, and teaching classes an infinite number of times per day.
No more tired teachers.But where do virtual reality and artificial intelligence fit in this equation? Here’s another quote by Michael Saylor to illustrate further:
“You have to dematerialise the professor and dematerialise the experience, so you put it as streaming on-demand computer generated education...”
Teachers and learning experiences are already being dematerialized through online courses (basically, virtual teachers) and live online classes (digital learning experiences). Nonetheless, both approaches have significant room for improvement in order to completely digitize education.
Some teachers will eventually get “dematerialized” with digitalization.For example, when watching 2D videos in online courses, information flows primarily in one direction (from teacher to student). As a result, the experience becomes very monotonous (it is as if students in a class could not interact with a teacher). In this regard, AI has the power to enhance these experiences by enabling a bidirectional flow of information via virtual 3D teachers that not only teach but also hear.
This will allow for a personalized learning experience in which students can provide feedback to their virtual teacher in order to constantly refine their experience while simultaneously creating the most personalized mentor available.
Your teacher of the future could be an AI-powered MetaHuman.Despite major advances in artificial intelligence, current virtual teachers and models lack a “personality” to which students can relate and, therefore, consider as a mentor or teacher. Nonetheless, given the current rate of advancement in AI, it is not surprising that AI avatars will soon overcome this barrier and become indistinguishable from real humans, allowing them to be considered “real” teachers.
Even though C3PO looks less ‘realistic’ than Sophia, it/he feels more ‘human’.Live online classes, on the other hand, are currently severely limited by a 2D screen in conveying an inherently three-dimensional experience (interacting with a group of people in real time, as in a classroom). This is where virtual reality comes in, providing a way to break into 2D screens and immerse yourself into 3D worlds. This way, human-to-human or human-to-AI interactions will feel very similar to real interactions.
This experience, when paired with 3D avatars that realistically represent ourselves, will make live sessions with fellow students feel like visiting a real classroom, creating tight bonds and strong communities that further enhance the learning experience (more on this in Why is Virtual Reality the Next Big Thing in Online Learning?).
Despite the incredible technology that makes this possible, current versions still fall into the uncanny valley.The digitization of the learning experience, powered by both VR and AI, will enable the best self-paced content with your own personal world-class teacher, as well as the ability to join high-quality collaborative group sessions with fellow students from anywhere in the world.
This way, an algebra lesson previously taught by an average, well-intentioned teacher will be taught by the best teacher ever available and be accessible to anyone in the world at any time, bringing the concept of infinite education to reality.
One teacher educating a billion students in a single day: VR & AI was originally published in AR/VR Journey: Augmented & Virtual Reality Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.