Harvard Is Introducing AI Instructor To Teach Students How To Code

Beginning in the fall, students taking Harvard University’s popular introductory coding course won’t see a human professor explain the technical concepts. Instead, the class—known as CS50—will be taught by an all-new artificial intelligence instructor.

According to Professor David Malan, who spoke to the university’s student newspaper The Harvard Crimson, the institution hopes that by incorporating AI into its lessons, it can eventually offer a 1:1 teacher-student ratio for everyone in the class.

It’s no secret that CS50 is one of the most popular courses on the online education platform edX. With an AI teacher, the school could provide the entire cohort with software-based tools that could, in theory, allow students to learn 24/7 at their own pace.

What would the AI teacher entail? Malan revealed that course staff members were experimenting with both GPT 3.5 and GPT 4 models; and that for a course that’s always spotlighted new software, this introduction would just be an “evolution of that tradition.”

Of course, one glaring issue is that despite their efficiency, GPT 3.5 and GPT 4 aren’t the most reliable models when it comes to creating structurally-sound code. Will false answers or “hallucinations” be a stumbling block for students looking to learn from the best?

While Malan concedes that AI can “occasionally underperform or even err,” he’s confident the virtual lecturer will help free course staff from unimportant tasks, allowing them more time to interact with students one-on-one.

[via Futurism and Firstpost, cover image via F11photo | Dreamstime.com]