AI chatbots seem to grow more advanced with each passing month. The idea of a computer handling ordinary tasks sounds great, but how do AI chatbots compare to human educators? Understanding the strengths and weaknesses of people versus machines in education allows administrators to make more informed decisions about when to invest in equipment and what areas today’s teachers excel in that robots likely never will.
Showing and teaching empathy
Despite programmers trying to teach robots how to express human emotions, they can’t feel what a human can or pick up on the minute details in human interactions. If they might be able to in the future remains to be seen. The factor that makes people who they are are complex and not duplicated easily.
Neurobotics looks at how to program machines with social skills. Can the robot feel emotion or just mimic it? Already, scientists are studying how the brain works to show empathy, and caregiving and the higher mental functions required to achieve such emotions. The idea is to develop social robots to help with tasks such as child and elder care.
Opponents to robot teachers would argue that small children need the comforting hug of a human when they fall and scrape a knee or are having a bad day. The robot may be able to mimic caring, but the actual emotions will always be lacking.
Natural language processing
Natural language processing lets machines embrace the way real people talk. It includes the words they choose, how they phrase a sentence, and even common speech patterns. Experts agree NLPs will improve activities such as translation, opening texts to the world.
NLP models such as ChatGPT-3 show machines can mimic human language. However, AI chatbots don’t always get it correct, sometimes phrasing things in a strange way or choosing a word with odd nuances. They need a human eye to ensure they are doing their jobs correctly.
Rapid personalization
AI chatbots are able to learn from a student’s style and adapt lessons to best suit their needs on the surface. Human teachers tend to learn about their classes more slowly, building details into their mindset over time.
Computers shine when it comes to presenting microlessons that allow people to understand any number of topics they might be struggling with better. AI can provide tutoring support by offering specific recommendations for improvement. While it is more difficult for a human to come up with individualized coursework, they have a deeper understanding of what truly makes the student tick.
Computers only work based on the input the student gives them. A teacher may know their family history and have details from the administrator, school counselor, or former teachers.
Availability
Humans can only work so many hours before they grow exhausted or hungry. They need food breaks, bathroom breaks, and time to sleep. While teachers care about their students and make themselves available even outside of working hours, they can never work as many uninterrupted hours as a machine can.
On the flip side, an AI chatbot never rests and needs no rest for food or personal hygiene. It’s available 24/7 to answer questions or serve up a lesson.
Offering encouragement
One might naturally think a human teacher would be an expert in the area of offering support, but AI chatbots have their place. Robots provide gamification to keep a student engaged with the task. Both can give rewards for a job well done or a skill mastered.
Solving problems
While AI chatbots do an excellent job of answering basic questions and offering up factual details, they have a ways to go with critical thinking skills and complex questions that involve creative thinking. Multiple examples of artificial intelligence getting answers wrong exist. One chatbot app based in New York City advised small business owners to break the law and ethical standards by encouraging them to discriminate against tenants and steal their employees’ tips.
Most people agree that chatbots will work alongside humans in the future, but they may serve more as assistants than lead instructors. Human teachers may not be perfect, but most will at least uphold the law to their students. A classroom without balance might sound futuristic, but it could create moral and ethical weaknesses in the student population.
Should AI-powered robots replace human teachers in the classroom?
Computers will advance rapidly as inventors and programmers learn better ways to teach machines. In the near future, society will see them enter homes as maids, help with household chores like mowing and repairs, and fill jobs once held by humans. Still, there are and likely always will be some limitations to what they can do.
The most likely path of the future is for automated teaching assistants to present the straightforward information students need and for a human teacher to check its work and provide the empathy machines lack. Robots will take away some of the grueling administrative work eating up teachers’ precious time and allow them to be more creative and supportive than ever before.
