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Parents turn to artificial intelligence to tutor their kids amid cost-of-living crunch

Cash-strapped parents are turning to artificial intelligence tutors to educate their kids amid the cost-of-living crisis, but experts have warned lessons could potentially go “off rails”.

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Cash-strapped parents are turning to artificial intelligence tutors to educate their kids amid the cost-of-living crunch, in a newly-emerging trend experts say could hinder students’ learning if not used properly.

Websites including ChatGPT, Zookal and Tutor Ocean are among several platforms offering one-on-one tutoring to school children at half the price of a private tutor.

While most require parents to pay a subscription, the platforms allow students to ask a question about any topic they’re learning, whether it be trigonometry, a new language or punctuation and spelling.

At a click of a button, some platforms provide either step-by-step instructions on how they got to that answer or a full course overview on what the student asked to learn.

But it comes with a catch – the educator on the other side of the screen isn’t human, nor has it studied a degree in teaching or gone to school.

Parents are turning to AI tutors to help their kids with school, amid the cost-of-living crisis. Picture: iStock
Parents are turning to AI tutors to help their kids with school, amid the cost-of-living crisis. Picture: iStock

University of Melbourne cybersecurity, computing and information systems lecturer Dr Shaanan Cohney, said generative AI is becoming increasingly capable of helping kids and adults overcome learning challenges.

“While textbooks offer detailed information, it can often be hard to locate the answer to a specific question – particularly when one doesn’t know how to ask the right question,” he said.

“AI tutors can help fill this gap as they can do a great job of helping people who can’t even articulate what they don’t know, clearly enough to get an answer from other sources.”

Parents are spending between $100 to $400 a year on AI tutors, a Herald Sun analysis of online tutoring platforms has found.

Parents are turning to artificial intelligence programs such as Chat GPT to tutor their kids. Picture: Herald Sun
Parents are turning to artificial intelligence programs such as Chat GPT to tutor their kids. Picture: Herald Sun

TechGuide Editor Stephen Fenech said the websites have made it more accessible for parents to afford tutors for their children.

“At first AI was frowned upon and even banned because teachers thought students would use it to do their homework, but with tools like Zookal it shows AI can be a force for good,” he said.

But Dr Cohney said it was important to remember even the best AI tutors could generate responses that contained factual inaccuracies at times.

“Particularly when a system is used without supervision, it’s easy for a session to go off rails,” he said.

“Parents need to carefully monitor how their children are using these tools, to ensure they learn the right lessons.”

Some platforms give students full course overviews and step-by-step guides to help with their learning. Picture: Herald Sun
Some platforms give students full course overviews and step-by-step guides to help with their learning. Picture: Herald Sun

Zookal co-founder and chief executive Ahmed Haider said the platform consulted with educators, academics, teachers and students to build its AI tutor, which has thousands of paying customers.

“With NAPLAN results showing one in three children are not meeting baseline literacy and numeracy rates, using AI will hopefully help bridge that gap,” he said.

Mr Haider agreed with academics who said students shouldn’t solely rely on AI tutors to learn, and said having an AI tool reinforcing the wrong information was “likely one of the worst possible outcomes”.

Instead he encouraged students to use platforms like Zookal as another tool to enhance their learning.

It comes as schools embed AI into their classrooms, including Hillcrest Secondary College which incorporates learning and assessment platform Education Perfect into its teaching.

Education Perfect co-founder Shane Smith said initial studies of AI at schools showed promising results.

“Student engagement soared, with 90 per cent of students re-engaging with the AI technology to improve their initial low-scoring responses,” Mr Smith said.

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Original URL: https://www.heraldsun.com.au/victoria-education/advice/parents-turn-to-artificial-intelligence-to-tutor-their-kids-amid-costofliving-crunch/news-story/95429d788b5b3a62cd6cc293814df216