There’s a great deal of hype when it comes to artificial intelligence these days. The technology is expected to revolutionize the world, although there remain some hiccups with its use in many areas, and misuse of AI continues to be a concern. But ultimately, the impact of generative AI is believed to be a positive and powerful one, and this is particularly true when it comes to education. Startups have already begun launching chatbots and AI in education as a means to enhance student learning. Likewise, these same AI education chatbots could improve others student areas such as mental health and wellness. These goals top the list when it comes to using AI in school systems across the country. But attaining these goals may be much more difficult than expected.
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Across the country, several school systems have invested in AI education chatbots. In fact, some districts have given millions of dollars to AI startup companies promising lofty results. In essence, the proposed chatbots and AI in education systems were supposed to revolutionize student learning. By providing better access to learning resources and personalizing educational strategies, student outcomes would improve. But as with many new technologies, figuring out how to best implement such systems is challenging. And combined with several risks specific to the use of AI in education, results thus far have been poor. It may well be that realizing AI’s benefits in education could be some time away.
The Promise of Chatbots and AI in Education
In providing a perfect example of the challenges associated with AI education chatbots, startup company AllHere offers some insights. The company was founded in 2016 by Joanna Smith-Griffin who was a former educator. As a teacher, she frequently struggled with child attendance in her class, so her intention of founding AllHere was to improve students’ presence in class and thus improve student learning. The original service that AllHere provided was one related to automated messaging. Then platform provided a communication link between schools and families to enhance student attendance. But in 2023, the company’s mission shifted to one involving chatbots and AI in education. And this is where things began to take a dive.
AllHere as a company did well through the pandemic. Its automated messaging services offered an essential tool for schools to communicate with parents and students. This provided substantial growth for AllHere eventually serving over 90 schools throughout the country. Taking this growth and support, AllHere acquired millions in venture capital and shifted gears. Smith-Griffin began to tout the potential of AI education chatbots and pitching this to schools. In the past year, this has enabled the company to obtain an additional $6 million from larger school districts like L.A. Believing personalized AI education chatbots could indeed help students excel while boosting their mental wellness, large checks were written. But to date, these investments haven’t come close to paying tangible dividends.
The Risks of AI Education Chatbots
Unfortunately, it was only a couple of months for the Los Angeles school district before things went awry. AllHere’s version of its AI educational chatbots designed for the schools was named “Ed.” Basically, Ed was designed to text students aged 14 years and older, directing them to academic and support resources. It was also supposed to communicate attendance and test scores with parents. But within a few weeks, Ed was taken offline to revise some of its responses that were being provided. This was then followed by a complete withdrawal of AllHere from its training and support responsibilities. As it stands now, Ed is a shell of what it was supposed to be. And in fact, most would not include it within the realm of chatbots and AI in education currently.
In its efforts to provide AI education chatbots, AllHere came across some major challenges. One of the most notable ones involved dealing with children’s privacy protections. Information collected by Ed from students was to be secured without access to administrators and teachers. And Ed’s interactions with students needed to ensure student safety and protection. In order to provide this, AllHere provided human oversight of its chatbots and AI in education settings. But this proved to be quite costly and labor intensive. This subsequently led to financial struggles for AllHere. In the last month, the company has had to furlough most of its staff and severely cut back on its automated messaging services. For L.A., that’s a significant setback not only in AI use but financially as well.
Making Technology Work in Schools
This is not the first time schools like L.A. have struggled with the implementation of new technologies. In 2013, a program was to provide students with iPads to enhance access to educational resources and learning. The district spent tens of millions of dollars of taxpayer money here too just as they did with the recent AI educational chatbots. But after a series of security concerns related to the devices and technical issues, the program was aborted. There’s little question that iPad had the potential to improve access to educational information. But how to implement this new technology in realizing this potential was another thing. Often, things that look simple turn out to be much more complex than expected.
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The story of AllHere and AI education chatbots like Ed should not be too surprising. For one, chatbots and AI in education are new ideas, and there isn’t a proven model to date. Simply because AI might enhance learning in theory doesn’t mean it will. And even if it can, it might take several trials to figure out which model works best. For this reason, educational gurus with expertise in technology recommend taking things extremely slow. Rather than investing millions in unproven concepts, it’s more valuable to perform needed research first. Of course, school systems like L.A. are eager to adopt new technologies to improve learning outcomes. But such eagerness tends to yield poor results and costly lessons.
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