E-Learning-Inclusivo (Mashup)

In January this year (2016), Jill Watson joined the Georgia Institute of Technology US as a teaching assistant (TA) to help MSc (computer science) students with their design projects. Her job was to reply to their (thousands of) questions. She was prompt, responded quickly to questions over email, and posted regularly on online fora.

She had an easy manner — often responding with a brief “yep” or welcoming suggestions with a “we’d love to”. The students described her as sharp, impersonal and prompt to respond. Some, however, got suspicious about her super-swift responses and looked her up on LinkedIn and Facebook. They couldn’t find her profile. Jill Watson was a teaching bot created by the IBM Watson team and trained by the team of researchers at Georgia Tech. The students described Jill as sharp, impersonal and prompt to respond

That’s because Jill was not human (her creators didn’t think of creating social profiles for her). She was a bot created by the IBM Watson team and trained by the team of researchers at Georgia Tech.

It’s a classic human v machine scenario: as AI gets better at teaching and providing educational assistance, the question inevitably turns to whether and when human teachers will be replaced by computers.