Do AI Tutors Actually Help Students Learn?

Ethan Mollick says a universal tutor of high quality now exists in AI, and when the tool is set up as a tutor the evidence seems to show positive effects in a meta-analysis and in individual RCTs at Stanford and in Kenya. One-on-one tutoring adapted to the student helps people learn. The tool does not tutor by default, because it wants to do the homework.

People remember having to take Khan Academy videos outside class in a flipped classroom. The flipped classroom is suddenly effective with AI tutors teaching outside class. Inside class, active learning takes over through case discussions, exercises, debates, and discussions, usually without AI in the room, though sometimes AI is used as a tool. Assessment goes back to tests and blue books. Losing take-home assignments is a sad loss.

The classroom problem is not hard to solve. Inside schools there is control over what students do, and students can still be assessed. Schools have to reach the place where outside tutoring, in-class active work, and in-class tests are how learning gets run.