robot to help with homework

StudyMonkey

Your personal ai tutor.

Learn Smarter, Not Harder with AI

Introducing StudyMonkey, your AI-powered tutor .

StudyMonkey AI can tutor complex homework questions, enhance your essay writing and assess your work—all in seconds.

No more long all-nighters

24/7 solutions to questions you're stumped on and essays you procrastinated on.

No more stress and anxiety

Get all your assignments done with helpful answers in 10 seconds or less.

No more asking friends for help

StudyMonkey is your new smart bestie that will never ghost you.

No more staying after school

AI tutoring is available 24/7, on-demand when you need it most.

AI Tutor for any subject

American college testing (act), anthropology, advanced placement exams (ap exams), arabic language, archaeology, biochemistry, chartered financial analyst (cfa) exam, communications, computer science, certified public accountant (cpa) exam, cultural studies, cyber security, dental admission test (dat), discrete mathematics, earth science, elementary school, entrepreneurship, environmental science, farsi (persian) language, fundamentals of engineering (fe) exam, gender studies, graduate management admission test (gmat), graduate record examination (gre), greek language, hebrew language, high school entrance exam, high school, human geography, human resources, international english language testing system (ielts), information technology, international relations, independent school entrance exam (isee), linear algebra, linguistics, law school admission test (lsat), machine learning, master's degree, medical college admission test (mcat), meteorology, microbiology, middle school, national council licensure examination (nclex), national merit scholarship qualifying test (nmsqt), number theory, organic chemistry, project management professional (pmp), political science, portuguese language, probability, project management, preliminary sat (psat), public policy, public relations, russian language, scholastic assessment test (sat), social sciences, secondary school admission test (ssat), sustainability, swahili language, test of english as a foreign language (toefl), trigonometry, turkish language, united states medical licensing examination (usmle), web development, step-by-step guidance 24/7.

Receive step-by-step guidance & homework help for any homework problem & any subject 24/7

Ask any question

StudyMonkey supports every subject and every level of education from 1st grade to masters level.

Get an answer

StudyMonkey will give you an answer in seconds—multiple choice questions, short answers, and even an essays are supported!

Review your history

See your past questions and answers so you can review for tests and improve your grades.

It's not cheating...

You're just learning smarter than everyone else

How Can StudyMonkey Help You?

Hear from our happy students.

"The AI tutor is available 24/7, making it a convenient and accessible resource for students who need help with their homework at any time."

"Overall, StudyMonkey is an excellent tool for students looking to improve their understanding of homework topics and boost their academic success."

Upgrade to StudyMonkey Premium!

Why not upgrade to StudyMonkey Premium and get access to all features?

Top 5 AI Homework Helper Tools

Artificial intelligence is all set to take your academic blues away. AI homework helper assists you with assignments, offers personalized support, boosts learning, and saves time. This article explores the best AI homework-helping tools that will take your school stress away in a snap like a genie.

ThinkML Team

ThinkML Team is a group of AI experts who stay up-to-date on the latest research and developments in the field of AI in order to provide readers with exclusive and informational content.

More posts by ThinkML Team.

Are you struggling with completing homework? Do you feel drowned in the piles of unfinished assignments? Or like you have no time for your personal life? If yes, then AI homework helper tools might be the perfect solution.

Like many other sectors, Artificial intelligence has revolutionized the education system . According to research, the AI education market will reach $20 billion by 2027. Another research revealed that students who study 3 or more hours a night most likely use AI .

AI homework helper tools are a literal lifesaver when it comes to academic tasks. Not only do AI tools like ChatGPT help students with homework, but they also enhance the understanding of the topic. The digital homework assistant can help you write, code, and solve problems. So, they save time and make homework less stressful for you.

In this article, we have discussed the top 5 AI homework helper tools for students. Read if you want an efficient helping hand for assistance.

Turn that roller-coaster-like academic life into a smooth sail.

What Is an AI Homework Helper Tool?

Before diving into the list, let's first discuss the definition of AI homework helper tools.

These are software/applications that use advanced Artificial Intelligence algorithms and machine learning techniques to operate. It is designed to help students with homework and understanding complex topics across various subjects.

AI homework assistants are available in different forms, like

• Mobile Apps
• Websites, etc.

The AI tools adapt to your needs and learning style and provide personalized support with homework tasks. They can help students by

• Solving maths problems
• Simplifying complex scientific phenomena
• Providing step-by-step guides or solutions
• Providing links to valuable resources (books, articles, videos, etc.)
• Writing essays and much more.

Top 5 AI Homework Helper Tools Out There

There are plenty of AI homework helper tools for students in the market. But the following are the best five among them.

1. Socratic

Best for detailed explanations and solutions.

Picture this.

You are staring at a complex equation in a textbook, unable to solve it. The deadline is imminent, and your brain has reached a dead end.

You know the stress, right?

Well, Let me introduce you to a superhero - Socratic AI

It is not your average assignment assistant. Socratic is an AI homework helper tool built to save you from the shame of undone assignments.

The Socratic AI homework assistant is powered by Google AI. It further uses text and speech recognition to understand the query. So, you can either type in or talk the query. You can also upload the image . Socratic AI will analyze your question and generate a detailed solution.

Features of Socratic AI Homework Helper

Comprehensive explanations.

It provides detailed explanations so students can understand the underlying concept and principle behind the solution.

Diverse Range of Subjects

The tool covers a variety of subjects like maths, science, literature, etc. According to the developers, the app has already answered over 350,000 questions from 21 topics.

Provision of Visual Aid

Socratic AI also responds with visual explanations to improve understanding of the topic. It provides videos, diagrams, charts, etc., for enhanced comprehension.

How to Use The Socratic AI Homework Buddy?

The AI homework helper for students is easy to use. Below are the steps to use it .

Download the App

The Socratic mobile app is available for download on Android and iOS both. Visit the Google Play or App Store to install the AI tool.

Once downloaded, click on the app to open it. Sign in using your Google account.

Ask question

Before asking questions, identify the method to approach the Socratic AI homework helper. As mentioned above, there are three ways of entering queries

• Upload the picture of the queries that are too complex to speak or type.

• Click on the microphone and voice the query.

• Type in the question.

Use the Explorer Feature

Besides asking questions, you can browse the subjects to gain more information.

• Scroll down to explore topics like Biology, History, Fiction, etc.
• Then, click the subject of your choice, and a list of subtopics will appear.
• Tap any subtopic and study the Explainers to get in-depth knowledge about it.

• User-friendly interface.
• Time-saving.
• The detailed step-by-step solution to complex problems.
• Deeper understanding for better learning.
• It covers 21 different subjects.
• New questions and answers are constantly being added to its database.
• It can lead to cheating.
• Answers for languages and humanities-related subjects can be vague sometimes.
• Previously asked questions are not stored in the app.

Free to use.

2. Grammarly

Ai writing assistant for students.

Imagine it is late at night, and you have an essay due tomorrow. Your brain has hit a creative block, and you keep staring at the blank page. The jumbled words are dancing in your head, but you cannot assemble them on paper.

I know it is the worst feeling ever.

But thanks to Grammarly .

Its AI tools can help the students write the best essays of their lives.

Grammarly's AI essay helper can be an essential learning tool for students. It is an AI writing assistant that helps you complete assignments on time.

Grammarly aids you with correcting the spelling, punctuation, and grammar of the content. It also provides personalized feedback to improve the essay/article. You can further observe the readability, clarity, and engagement of content. Moreover, it allows you to set a voice or tone for your essay.

Ways To Use Grammarly AI

The generative AI feature of the homework helper for students can help you with the following.

Brainstorming

Students can use the AI homework helper to think of topics to write on.

Summarizing

It can summarize lengthy articles in a few moments only.

Proofreading

The AI homework buddy can also proofread the text for typos like grammatical errors, spelling mistakes, missing punctuation, etc.

Accurate citations are an unavoidable part of academic writing. However, formatting citations is time-consuming. Grammarly homework helper automates the citation process for the students.

Generating Outline

You can use Grammarly AI to create an outline for the essay you got as homework.

AI Recommendations

Grammarly AI can also provide suggestions to the students. For example, we asked it about the best articles on Gemini AI. It responded with the following list.

• Enhanced writing style.
• Error-free essay/article.
• Real-time feedback to improve the content.
• May not identify colloquial language.
• AI proofreading cannot replace human checking.
• AI suggestions might be inaccurate.

The free plan costs you $0. But you only get 100 AI prompts a month. So, to get more prompts, subscribe to either

• Premium: 1000 AI prompts/month for $12
• Business: 2000 AI prompts/month for $15

3. PhotoMath

Ai-driven maths tutoring app.

Mathematics is not every student's cup of tea. Yawns and boredom stirred by geometry, algebra, and calculus make it less likable to most.

But PhotoMath is here for students to make maths homework easy and interactive.

It is the most used Maths app that has gathered over 220 million downloads during the pandemic. It also secured $23 million in Series B funding led by Menlo Ventures.

The AI maths helpertool was created in 2014 by a tech company, PhotoPay (now Microblink). The founder of the magic app is Damir Sabol, a father who wanted to help his son with maths homework.

How to Use PhotoMath?

Following are the few steps to solve the tricky maths problems.

PhotoMath is available on both Google Play and App Store for installation. Open the app after downloading. Fill in the required information. Now you are all set to get the Maths homework done.

Input the Problem

• Use the camera mode to take a picture of the problem written on a sheet or book. Scan the question and get a detailed solution in an instant.

• You can also use PhotoMath's built-in calculator. Here, you can type the question instead of taking a photo.

Solve Using PhotoMath

The AI homework helper uses advanced AI and image processing technology to analyze the problem. Then, it will solve the problem by breaking it down into small, simple steps. The app also provides a detailed explanation about each step for your clarity.

Features of PhotoMath AI Homework Helper

Diverse topics.

The AI Homework partner covers a variety of topics for maths topics. So, it can be your study buddy from second grade to high school.

Multiple Solutions

The AI homework helper provides multiple ways of solving an equation.

Animated Tutorials

Besides showing written solutions, the app provides audio-visual tutorials for better learning.

The homework app has a feature that lets you access previously solved problems.

Math Dictionary

Instead of providing mere solutions, PhotoMath aims to enhance student's understanding of the concept. Therefore, it explains the definitions of the highlighted terms in the solution.

• Enhanced Maths proficiency.
• Step-by-step solutions.
• No Internet is required.
• Supports 30 different languages.
• Efficient Scientific calculator.
• Interactive graphs.
• Textbook solutions.
• It may lead to cheating.
• Over-reliance on the AI.

The basic version is free of cost. However, access to advanced features costs 9.9 USD a month.

4. OddityAI

Chatgpt-powered ai homework helper.

OddityAI is another great AI homework helper for students. It is like a brainy study partnerthat sits in your pocket.

Instead of just giving answers, it also explains the in-depth principle behind the problem. So, besides helping with homework, it betters your understanding of the schoolwork.

OddityAI displays numerous ChatGPT-4 enabled bots, each for a separate subject. The homework bots work as your AI tutor to support you with assignments and learning.

You can either

• Upload a picture of the problem from the textbook, notes, etc.
• Or type in your assignment question in the box.

The AI homework helper will analyze and provide detailed answers with explanations.

Features of OddityAI

Diverse subject range.

The AI homework helper covers a variety of subjects. Examples are maths, chemistry, physics, English, business, etc. Each AI bot is assigned to deal with the subject-specific question.

24/7 AI Tutor

Besides AI homework bots, you can access the AI tutor bots. OddityAI tutors are not designed to provide answers like homework answer bots. Instead, they are meant to explain the topics to enhance learning and understanding.

Essay Writer

The AI homework helper for students also features an AI essay writer. It generates a personalized and unique essay with every use. The AI writer provides an outline after you fill in the required information. You should then edit and humanize it to avoid cheating.

Unlike a question, an AI essay consumes two credits.

AI Flash Cards

The flash card feature of the AI homework partner will enhance your learning and memorization. AI flash cards are a new addition to Oddity and cost 0 credits. To use the feature, upload a picture of your notes/homework. You can select up to three images at a time. Then, click Generate Flash Cards . You can use the auto-generated flashcards to keep track of your progress.

AI-generated quizzes by Oddity AI are the best way to prepare for school tests. In the same way as AI flashcards, this feature is also new and free.

The process is simple

• Upload the picture of homework
• Click Generate quiz
• Solve the quiz

The AI homework helper also shows your result at the end. So you can identify the wrong answers and topics you log in.

• Time-Saving.
• Fast responses.
• Accurate and reliable.
• Affordable.
• Wide range of subjects.
• Enhanced understanding of the topic.
• Limited to the website only.
• Imprecise answers to complex, niche-specific questions.
• No multi-language support.
• Requires internet
• Free Trial: 10 free questions
• Buy Credits: 250 answers for $4.99
• Subscription: Unlimited access for $9.99/month

AI Homework Tool for Young & Experienced Students

Last on the list of top AI homework helpers is ClassX . It contains numerous AI features to assist you with homework and academic learning.

The ClassX homework helper is also powered by ChatGPT , like OddityAI. So, the platform is interactive and provides detailed solutions in easy and natural language.

Features of ClassX

Wide variety of subjects.

Students can rely on the AI homework helper for over 280 different subjects from grade 1 to grade 12. The subjects range from STEM to English, grammar, Arts, Economics, Psychology, etc.

Coding Assistance

The AI homework tool also specializes in coding other than STEM and Arts. So, it can help you with school assignments related to coding and programming languages.

AI Project Helper

ClassX offers a 10-step project-based learning. The AI project helper is a way to explore the subject of your interest. And create engaging projects to showcase your learnings.

Video Lessons

The AI homework helper provides video lessons for experienced students. You can search and watch videos on various subject-related topics. After that, you can ask the AI Xtutor questions related to the video to enhance your understanding. Furthermore, it displays the definitions of the tricky terms to improve your vocabulary.

AI Conversations

It is the most fun feature of the AI homework helper. It lets you

• Interview the AI version of a Historical figure to increase your knowledge

• Converse with the Xtutor about the book you are reading.

• Chat with AI-powered country guides to learn about the economy, culture, geography, etc, of various countries.

Numerous AI Homework Tools for Students

ClassX features plenty of AI tools for students, like

• Sentence generator
• Grammar Corrector
• Ancient Text Translator, etc., all driven by AI.

In addition, it also helps young kids with alphabet, phonics, music, etc. homework.

• User-friendly.
• Enhanced learning.
• More than 280 different subjects.
• Offers support in coding assignments.
• The AI homework helper Requires an Internet Connection.
• It can create dependency on AI.
• It cannot replace human feedback and tutoring
• Free Version: You can access the Xtutor and all the lessons for homework free of cost. But you only get ten questions/ day with the free version.
• Premium: It is $6.95/ month. A premium subscription lets you access most of the advanced features. And you get 2000 AI queries for a day instead of 10.
• Pro: You get all the premium features plus AI images. And 10,000 queries every day. It costs $14.95/month.

AI Homework Helper Tools Price Comparison

Here is the price comparison to help you make decision according to your budget.

Ethical Considerations of Using AI Homework Helper

AI Homework helpers have proven to be a valuable resource for students. From completing school work to enhancing learning, AI homework tools benefit students in plenty of ways.

However, there is a fine line between assistance and cheating .

In 2017, one of the Socratic app founders was asked how the homework app reduces academic honor violations.

He replied (quoted by Time)

"Every student today goes to the Internet, goes to Google to ask all of their questions - this is something that's happening anyway."

So, the main ethical concern with using AI in homework is plagiarism . Submitting an AI-generated essay/assignment without proper attribution breaches Academic honor codes . Secondly, students using AI homework helpershave an advantage over students without access to these tools. This inequality fuels unfair competition and devalues academic achievements. Other than that, over-reliance on AI can reduce the problem-solving skills of the students. Use of an AI homework helper can also lead to the loss of critical thinking in the students. Lastly, failing and making mistakes is an essential part of learning. AI homework tools might interfere with the natural learning curve of the student

Final Thoughts

Above mentioned are our recommended top 5 AI homework helper tools. They will not only assist you with assignments but will also enhance your knowledge and learning.

But no matter how efficient, the homework tools are AI-driven nonetheless. They can never replace a teacher's intellect and feedback. Nor can they build an emotional connection with students.

So, the key is to strike a balance between AI power and human genius . Use the tools for assistance, but do not rely entirely on AI for school work.

• Privacy Policy

10 Best AI Homework Helper Tools to Try Right Now

Are you struggling with your homework assignments? Do you wish you had more time, energy, and motivation to complete them? Do you want to improve your grades, skills, and knowledge without sacrificing your personal life? If you answered yes to any of these questions, then you might benefit from using an AI help with homework.

AI tools can help students with various aspects of their homework, such as checking grammar, finding answers, researching sources, tutoring, and more. In this article, we will review 10 best homework helper AI tools that you can try right now to improve your academic performance and do your homework easier.

AI Homework Helper Tools

Here is a table that compares the features and price of some best homework AI tools:

What is an AI Homework Helper Tool?

An AI homework helper tool is a software application that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to assist students with their homework tasks. AI is a branch of computer science that aims to create machines and systems that can perform tasks that normally require human intelligence, such as reasoning, learning, problem-solving, and creativity.

AI homework helper tools use AI to offer various benefits and services that can assist students with their homework, such as: Creating homework tasks, plans, suggestions, and answers Giving customized coaching, evaluation, and advice Making complex topics and simplifying complex topics to understand.

10 Best Free AI Homework Helper Tools to Try Right Now

We will introduce you to 10 of the best AI homework helper tools that you can try right now. These tools are easy to use, reliable, and affordable. They can help you improve your academic performance and learning experience. Let’s take a look at these amazing AI tools and see how they can help you with your homework.

StudyMonkey AI

StudyMonkey AI is an AI homework helper tool that acts as your personal AI tutor. StudyMonkey AI can help you with your homework by providing you with personalized tutoring, feedback, and guidance. StudyMonkey AI can also help you learn and master any subject or topic by creating customized study plans, quizzes, flashcards, and games.

StudyMonkey.ai can adapt to your learning style, pace, and goals and provide you with the best learning experience possible. studymonkey. ai is the perfect AI homework helper tool for students who want to improve their grades, skills, and knowledge. To learns more and start your free trial.

OddityAI is an AI homework helper tool that can do your homework for you in minutes. All you have to do is upload your homework instructions, choose your subject and level, and wait for the AI to generate a complete and correct solution. OddityAI can handle any type of homework, from essays to math problems to coding assignments.

It can also provide you with explanations, references, and tips to help you understand and improve your homework. OddityAI is the ultimate AI homework helper tool that can save you time, effort, and stress. To learn more and start your free trial.

The Homework AI

The Homework AI is an AI homework helper tool that acts as your digital study buddy. The Homework AI can help you with your homework by providing you with smart suggestions, hints, and resources. The Homework AI can also help you study and review any subject or topic by creating personalized summaries, notes, and flashcards.

The Homework AI can interact with you through voice, text, or chat and provide you with a friendly and supportive learning environment. The Homework AI is the ideal AI homework helper tool for students who want to have a fun and interactive homework and study experience. To learn more and start your free trial.

Smodin Omni

Smodin Omni is an AI homework helper tool that can solve any homework problem in seconds. Smodin Omni is powered by a powerful AI engine that can access and analyze billions of data points and sources to provide you with the best and most accurate solution. Smodin Omni can solve any type of homework problem, from algebra to physics to chemistry to history.

It can also provide you with step-by-step solutions, explanations, and examples to help you understand and verify your homework. Smodin Omni is the ultimate homework solver AI that can help you ace any homework assignment. To learn more and start your free trial.

CodeWay Homework

CodeWay Homework is an AI homework helper tool that is specialized in coding and programming homework. CodeWay Homework can help you with your coding and programming homework by providing you with code generation, debugging, testing, and optimization. CodeWay Homework can also help you learn and improve your coding and programming skills by providing you with personalized tutorials, projects, and feedback.

Solvo: AI Homework Helper

Solvo AI is an AI homework helper tool that is revolutionizing the way students do their homework. Solvo AI can help you with your homework by providing you with smart solutions, explanations, and resources. Solvo AI homework helper can also help you do your homework by providing you with voice and gesture control, augmented reality, and virtual reality.

Solvo AI can transform any surface, such as a wall, a table, or a floor, into a smart homework workspace that you can interact with using your voice and gestures. Solvo AI can also create immersive and realistic homework scenarios that you can experience using augmented reality and virtual reality. Solvo AI is the ultimate AI homework helper tool for students who want to have a revolutionary and futuristic homework and learning experience.

TutorEva AI

TutorEva is an app that provides students with an AI study partner powered by GPT, 24/7 homework help, millions of step-by-step solutions, and more. TutorEva can help students with various aspects of their homework, such as writing, math, science, language, and more. TutorEva can also help students with exam preparation, textbook solutions, and personalized tutoring. TutorEva is available for both Android and iOS devices.

ClassX AI Homework Helper

ClassX AI Homework Helper is an AI homework helper tool that is designed as the future of learning. ClassX AI Homework Helper can help you with your homework by providing you with personalized solutions, explanations, and resources. ClassX AI Homework Helper can also help you learn and grow by providing you with personalized learning paths, goals, and rewards.

ClassX AI Homework Helper can analyze your homework performance, learning style, and interests and provide you with the best and most suitable learning content and activities. ClassX AI Homework Helper can also connect you with other students, teachers, and experts who can help you with your homework and learning. ClassX AI Homework Helper is the perfect AI homework helper tool for students who want to have a personalized and collaborative homework and learning experience.

Grammarly is an AI homework helper tool that is specialized in improving your writing skills and grammar. Grammarly can help you with your writing homework by providing you with writing suggestions, corrections, and enhancements. Grammarly can also help you improve your writing skills and grammar by providing you with personalized feedback, insights, and goals.

Grammarly can work with any type of writing, such as essays, reports, emails, or social media posts. Grammarly can also work with any writing platform, such as Google Docs, Microsoft Word, or Gmail. Grammarly is the ultimate AI homework helper tool for students who want to improve their writing skills and grammar and impress their teachers and peers.

StudyPool AI

Studypool AI is a web-based platform that provides students with 24/7 homework help from verified tutors, millions of step-by-step solutions, and an AI study partner powered by GPT. Studypool AI can help students with various subjects, such as math, science, writing, programming, and more. Studypool AI can also help students with exam preparation, textbook solutions, and personalized tutoring. Studypool AI is accessible from any device with an internet connection.

You can also check out our blog, 10 Best Ways to Use AI for Kids . AI tools for kids are applications and programs that use AI to help kids learn about various topics, such as math, science, art, and coding. AI tools for kids can also help them develop skills such as creativity, logic, and critical thinking.

Frequently Asked Questions

Are ai homework helper tools cheating.

AI homework helpers aren’t cheating; they support students, doing homework and learning easier, without replacing their effort and creativity.

How much do AI Homework Helper Tools Cost?

Costs of AI homework tools vary. Some have free trials with limited features. Paid plans range from a few dollars to hundreds per month/year.

How Safe and Secure are AI Homework Helper Tools?

AI homework helpers ensure safety and privacy. They use encryption, authentication, and comply with laws. They don’t share data without consent.

How Reliable and Accurate are AI Homework Helper Tools?

AI homework helpers are reliable and accurate. They use advanced algorithms, credible sources, and error detection to provide high-quality, factual, and error-free content and solutions.

How can I get the Most out of AI Homework Helper Tools?

To make the most of AI homework helpers, choose the right one, use it consistently, follow its guidance, verify its accuracy, infuse your creativity, and above all, enjoy the learning journey with these helpful tools.

In conclusion, the integration of AI tools into the realm of education has opened up a world of possibilities for students. Homework, once a daunting and frustrating task, can now become an opportunity for growth and improvement. These AI tools offer a wide range of benefits, from enhancing writing skills and simplifying math problems to providing language translations and personalized tutoring.

We hope that this article has helped you find the best AI homework helper tool for you. We encourage you to try them out and see for yourself how they can help you with your homework and learning. We are sure that you will be amazed by the results and benefits that they can offer. Happy learning!

Please Join Our Community

Be a part of the great AI Community and stay updated with the latest AI News

Leave your Reply

Your email address will not be published. All fields are required *

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

Stay Connected

You may like.

Microsoft Copilot Visual Studio: Your AI Coding Companion

OpenAI’s Latest Innovation: GPT-4 Turbo with Vision Now for Developers

ChatGPT vs ChatGPT Plus - Which is Better?

Doctrina AI Exam Generator: How to Use and Why You Need It

What is ChatGPT Plus and How to Subscribe it

How to use AI to help with Homework

Homework is meant to reinforce classroom lessons and develop critical thinking skills. Yet stacked assignments with confusing concepts and tight deadlines often leave students overwhelmed and lacking deeply understood foundations.

This is where AI homework helper apps come in - your personalized tutor available 24/7 to explain challenging material conversationally until clarity clicks. AI capabilities transform homework from isolated frustration to engaging progression.

Let's explore top techniques for responsibly leveraging AI to master tricky homework across academic subjects. Say goodbye to late nights guessing answers alone!

Why Students Struggle Through Homework Alone

Attempting to power through homework solo often backfires due to:

1. Ambiguous Instructions - Remembering exact formatting needs or creative constraints can be tough. And complex academic language leaves guesswork for what a question is even asking.

2. Foundational Knowledge Gaps - New lessons build on assumed comprehended concepts from past courses. When fundamentals remain foggy, new material confuses further.

3. Fixed Resources - Attempting to teach yourself new material with just a textbook or sparse online searching provides limited perspectives. Some learning styles need alternate explanations.

4. Tight Deadlines - Getting stuck on one aspect delays completing further questions. And grading pressures magnify anxiety attempting new skills without sample applications.

"The assigned readings felt almost like a foreign language. I understood the overall topic but couldn't grasp key theories well enough to answer homework prompts correctly."

Thankfully AI advancement now provides students customizable support previously unavailable.

Why AI is a Game Changer for Personalized Academic Help

AI homework assistants excel by:

Explaining Concepts Conversationally - Using natural language interactions, AI helps break down confusing aspects into digestible steps while allowing iterative follow-up questions.

Meeting You At Your Level - AI assessment of knowledge gaps lets its explanations start basic before advancing to higher complexity tailored to you.

Providing Visual Examples - Rendering study aid graphics, idea maps, charts and more to suit different learning preferences with visuals assisting memory retention.

Recommending Related Resources - Suggesting complementary videos, textbook sections, online sources to dive deeper across diverse media.

Unlike one-size-fits-all paper textbooks, AI tutors adapt to individuals' pacing and trouble spots for true personalization. Students gain both autonomy and support exactly when needed.

AI technology has been a game changer for understanding the more complex concepts covered in my courses. Asking follow-up questions until a light bulb moment occurs with the AI tutor has led to huge academic confidence boosts and submitting homework on time without guesswork.

Now let's see step-by-step how leading homework helper platforms enable transformative assistance...

A Walkthrough of AI Homework Helpers in Action

Tools like Just Think make it simple to tap into AI knowledge without any app downloads. Here's how students can get homework clarity:

1. Submit Your Homework Question

Snap a photo of the question, copy/paste long-form text prompts into the app interface, or dictate queries aloud via voice notes. This initial input captures the assignment details to be solved.

2. Receive Detailed AI Explanations

The AI homework assistant then gets to work analyzing the question and your knowledge gaps before delivering personalized explanations to teach you step-by-step techniques for solving problems successfully.

Visual elements are incorporated where helpful to simplify complex processes through relationship mappings. Diagrams enhance memory and application for tricky concepts.

3. Ask Iterative Follow-Up Questions

Confused still? The AI allows back and forth dialogue through additional questions from you, then answering conversationally with tweaked vocabulary and examples tailored to the obstacles in your comprehension.

This interactivity removes feelings of being stuck on your own, instead building momentum towards that satisfied "aha!" moment.

Subjects Where AI Homework Help Excels

Here are academic areas where students gain the most from AI writing and comprehension support:

• Algebra, calculus, statistics concepts explained conversationally
• Step-by-step guidance on solving equations
• Personalized approaches if gaps in foundations
• Breaking down complex physics, chemistry, biology theories through diagrams
• Supplemental readings for enhanced understanding
• Math foundations refreshers relevant to scientific formulas
• Timeline visualizations for context around key events, people
• Primary source analyses
• Comparing biases and angles across historians

English Literature

• Summarizing themes across lengthy assigned readings
• Essay starter frameworks tuned to paper requirements
• Grammar and syntax error flagging for polished prose
• Real-time fixes for improving logic flow and efficiency
• Debugging assistance
• Code readability assessments

And many additional academic subjects are supported and expanding further as AI models continuously advance.

Responsible AI Usage for Optimizing Homework

With great power comes great responsibility. While collaborating with an AI homework helper unlocks huge efficiency gains, students should:

1. Use AI Explanations as Learning Springboards

The goal remains deeply comprehending material yourself, not just copying answers. Treat AI guidance as a tutor for unlocking clarity - master concepts explained to cement foundations.

2. Customize Guidance Around Your Strengths/Weaknesses

AI allows playbooks personalized for each student. Be transparent on knowledge gaps needing work so its approach targets areas precisely needing reinforcement.

3. Double Check AI Recommendations

As robust as underlying models may be, the chance of inaccuracies exists. Verify suggestions and fact check against other reputable sources when uncertain.

Following these best practices keeps your growth as the focus while responsibly optimizing academics.

Additional Homework Help Applications

While tackling challenging assignments takes prime advantage of AI powered homework assistance , students can utilize these personalized benefits for:

Studying & Exam Prep - Using conversational questioning to solidify understanding of core curriculum concepts across every subject.

Paper Proofreading & Editing - Getting objective feedback on draft coherence, grammar issues, and areas needing deeper analysis.

1-on-1 Lesson Support - Getting personalized tutoring from AI on topics you struggle most with via ongoing dialogue tailored to the obstacles blocking you.

Interactive Coding Environments - AI suggests tweaks for improving coding project efficiency, structure and offers industry best practice guidance relative to experience level.

The Future of AI & Education

As artificial intelligence research continues steadily improving machine learning models in areas like natural language processing, virtually every academic field will transform.

We're already seeing homework helper platforms acceleration due to capabilities like:

• Answering open-ended questions, not just formulas
• Lifelike dialogue vs rigid responses
• Faster processing of handwritten work
• Personalize guidance around dynamic knowledge

And in the coming years, increasing accountability around model transparency and ethical development will further cement AI assistants as trusted tutors. Soon getting stuck on assignments even in advanced courses will feel like a relic of the past.

Homework that once overwhelmed students attempting to teach themselves now has a personalized AI tutor reachable 24/7. Platforms like Just Think enable moving from confusion to clarity through natural dialogue tailored exactly to individual needs - no matter the academic subject.

With iterative Q&A sessions unlocking foundational comprehension at your own pace plus visual aids accelerating practical applications, homework levels up from isolated frustration to rewarding skill progression thanks to AI's expanded support.

So next time an assignment has you questioning abilities alone late into the night, empower yourself instead with an AI study buddy right by your side until that grades-boosting "aha!" moment. The future of learning looks abundantly bright.

• Skip to main content
• Keyboard shortcuts for audio player

A new AI chatbot might do your homework for you. But it's still not an A+ student

Emma Bowman

Enter a prompt into ChatGPT, and it becomes your very own virtual assistant. OpenAI/Screenshot by NPR hide caption

Enter a prompt into ChatGPT, and it becomes your very own virtual assistant.

Why do your homework when a chatbot can do it for you? A new artificial intelligence tool called ChatGPT has thrilled the Internet with its superhuman abilities to solve math problems, churn out college essays and write research papers.

After the developer OpenAI released the text-based system to the public last month, some educators have been sounding the alarm about the potential that such AI systems have to transform academia, for better and worse.

"AI has basically ruined homework," said Ethan Mollick, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business, on Twitter.

The tool has been an instant hit among many of his students, he told NPR in an interview on Morning Edition , with its most immediately obvious use being a way to cheat by plagiarizing the AI-written work, he said.

Academic fraud aside, Mollick also sees its benefits as a learning companion.

Opinion: Machine-made poetry is here

He's used it as his own teacher's assistant, for help with crafting a syllabus, lecture, an assignment and a grading rubric for MBA students.

"You can paste in entire academic papers and ask it to summarize it. You can ask it to find an error in your code and correct it and tell you why you got it wrong," he said. "It's this multiplier of ability, that I think we are not quite getting our heads around, that is absolutely stunning," he said.

A convincing — yet untrustworthy — bot

But the superhuman virtual assistant — like any emerging AI tech — has its limitations. ChatGPT was created by humans, after all. OpenAI has trained the tool using a large dataset of real human conversations.

"The best way to think about this is you are chatting with an omniscient, eager-to-please intern who sometimes lies to you," Mollick said.

It lies with confidence, too. Despite its authoritative tone, there have been instances in which ChatGPT won't tell you when it doesn't have the answer.

That's what Teresa Kubacka, a data scientist based in Zurich, Switzerland, found when she experimented with the language model. Kubacka, who studied physics for her Ph.D., tested the tool by asking it about a made-up physical phenomenon.

"I deliberately asked it about something that I thought that I know doesn't exist so that they can judge whether it actually also has the notion of what exists and what doesn't exist," she said.

ChatGPT produced an answer so specific and plausible sounding, backed with citations, she said, that she had to investigate whether the fake phenomenon, "a cycloidal inverted electromagnon," was actually real.

When she looked closer, the alleged source material was also bogus, she said. There were names of well-known physics experts listed – the titles of the publications they supposedly authored, however, were non-existent, she said.

"This is where it becomes kind of dangerous," Kubacka said. "The moment that you cannot trust the references, it also kind of erodes the trust in citing science whatsoever," she said.

Scientists call these fake generations "hallucinations."

"There are still many cases where you ask it a question and it'll give you a very impressive-sounding answer that's just dead wrong," said Oren Etzioni, the founding CEO of the Allen Institute for AI , who ran the research nonprofit until recently. "And, of course, that's a problem if you don't carefully verify or corroborate its facts."

Users experimenting with the chatbot are warned before testing the tool that ChatGPT "may occasionally generate incorrect or misleading information." OpenAI/Screenshot by NPR hide caption

An opportunity to scrutinize AI language tools

Users experimenting with the free preview of the chatbot are warned before testing the tool that ChatGPT "may occasionally generate incorrect or misleading information," harmful instructions or biased content.

Sam Altman, OpenAI's CEO, said earlier this month it would be a mistake to rely on the tool for anything "important" in its current iteration. "It's a preview of progress," he tweeted .

The failings of another AI language model unveiled by Meta last month led to its shutdown. The company withdrew its demo for Galactica, a tool designed to help scientists, just three days after it encouraged the public to test it out, following criticism that it spewed biased and nonsensical text.

Untangling Disinformation

Ai-generated fake faces have become a hallmark of online influence operations.

Similarly, Etzioni says ChatGPT doesn't produce good science. For all its flaws, though, he sees ChatGPT's public debut as a positive. He sees this as a moment for peer review.

"ChatGPT is just a few days old, I like to say," said Etzioni, who remains at the AI institute as a board member and advisor. It's "giving us a chance to understand what he can and cannot do and to begin in earnest the conversation of 'What are we going to do about it?' "

The alternative, which he describes as "security by obscurity," won't help improve fallible AI, he said. "What if we hide the problems? Will that be a recipe for solving them? Typically — not in the world of software — that has not worked out."

New AI chatbot can do students' homework for them

Quebec teachers brace for chatgpt helping students cheat.

Social Sharing

On the first day of class this semester, Laurent Nicolas didn't just go over his course outline.

The English teacher showed his students how ChatGPT — artificial intelligence chat software that has consumed huge quantities of data to generate original, human-like responses — could complete a written assignment in a matter of seconds.

Nicolas, who teaches at Collège André-Grasset, a private college in Montreal, asked ChatGPT to write a gothic poem about rock climbing. The response came moments later:

With every step, my heart beats fast, As I reach for the next hold tight, The echoes of the past, Whisper secrets in the night.

But one of Nicolas's students was already familiar with the bot. He raised his hand and shared that he'd used it to write an essay the previous semester.

Faced with the explosive attention ChatGPT has garnered since it was made publicly available last fall, Quebec teachers are grappling with how to manage — or make the most of — the AI program in their classrooms.

A new frontier for plagiarism

Jeremy Klughaupt, an English teacher at Collège de Maisonneuve, typed some of his essay questions into the program, and was horrified by the result.

In less than a minute, the AI spat out responses comparable with the work some of his students might produce.

Klughaupt said many of his colleagues are "pulling their hair out," unsure how to proceed with their course plans and evaluations. Spotting and dealing with assignments completed by Google Translate was already a challenge. Now, with ChatGPT at his students' fingertips, he worries that the potential for fraud and plagiarism grows as this technology continues to evolve.

"As teachers, a lot of us feel torn between these two roles that we have: to educate and, increasingly, to police students," Klughaupt said.

Teachers in his department are considering abandoning take-home writing assignments. But that is a decision he is not yet prepared to make. Students hone their writing skills when engaged in long-term, immersive projects, which can't all be done in the classroom, he said.

Andrew Piper, professor in the department of languages, literatures and cultures at McGill University, agrees.

"We don't want to just get rid of essay writing," he said on CBC Montreal's Daybreak . "Writing is a fabulous way to figure out what you're trying to say and develop your thoughts and has been for a long stretch of human history."

However, Piper believes the risks go beyond academic integrity. The program's ability to easily generate massive amounts of text, which can be personalized, targeted and convincing, is a cause for concern.

"The problem is, [ChatGPT] doesn't really understand how the world works," said Piper. "It doesn't actually know if something's true. And so in certain cases, that can lead to misinformation…. There's nothing in the system that sort of flags itself."

The Quebec Ministry of Education is assessing the impacts of the technology on student learning and teacher work, especially with regard to ministerial exams. Meanwhile, in New York, ChatGPT is banned in all public schools due to concerns about its impact on learning and with its accuracy.

Harnessing the power of AI

But not all Quebec educators are worried. In fact, some are optimistic about ChatGPT and the possible emergence of AI in the province's schools.

Educators like Walcir Cardoso, professor of linguistics at Concordia University, are hoping teachers harness its power to enhance the quality of education.

Cardoso thinks ChatGPT can be effective in improving students' vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation. Teachers should also consider alternatives to essays like debates and pre-recorded presentations, he said.

As for precautions, Cardoso proposes that teachers test the AI for responses to essay questions. And he suggests students should be free to cite the chatbot for certain assignments, as long as they are transparent.

"If students want to plagiarize, they will, regardless of what is available," said Cordoso.

• Experts and educators say viral AI tool ChatGPT brings challenges
• Curveball or game changer? ChatGPT, AI tools under watch on Canadian campuses

For its part, the Lester B. Pearson School Board is still assessing the opportunities and pitfalls that come with ChatGPT.

"It's very early on in the arrival of this technology to really be sure of what the power of it is and how it can be used effectively in the class," said Mat Canavan, director of education services at Lester B. Pearson School Board.

But he knows that if ignored, "it's going to come back and bite us" due to how quickly ChatGPT can complete an assignment.

Canavan says educators need to adapt and make the most of the tools available to them and their students. This means shifting learning to focus on creativity, voice and process — things the bot can't imitate.

"How do we incorporate artificial intelligence into the work that we're doing to make it so a student can learn deeper?" he said.

"In every instance where there's new technology that comes along, it causes a knee-jerk fear reaction. But it also creates the potential for more evolved and or in depth learning."

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Joe Bongiorno is an author, former high school teacher and a journalist at the CBC. He has also reported for Canadian Geographic, Maisonneuve, Canada’s National Observer and others. You can reach him at [email protected].

With files from CBC Montreal's Daybreak

Related Stories

• From AI dating to flirt coaches: How AI is changing dating, for better or worse

Table of Contents

• December 12, 2023

Top 13 AI Homework Helper For Students (2024)

Ever been stuck in front of a blank screen, feeling the weight of an impossible homework load? Trust me, we’ve all been there. I am a procrastinator, and while I am not proud about it, it did help me find a number of AI tools.

These tools helped me make preparations for a syllabus in weeks that would have taken me months to complete. Yes, I admit that it is not the most ideal scenario.

What if AI effortlessly elevated your understanding, boosted your learning outcomes, and freed up valuable time in your day?

AI is a reality in 2024, and those who do not take advantage will fall behind. Whether you’re untangling grammar knots or drowning in complex maths problems, there are AI tools for everything. 

Today, I will give recommendations for the best AI homework helper for students. These tools had made my life easier when I had too much coursework, especially during thesis preparation.

So, join me as we discover how to merge education with the latest AI technologies to increase productivity and save time.

AI Homework Helper Tools by Type

From AI Answer Generators to AI Tutors, the following tools offer solutions for assignments, writing, presentations, maths problem-solving, and research. As we present each of the tools you’ll discover how each tool type caters to your specific academic needs. 

AI Answer Generators

The following tools were chosen for their ability to make it easier to prepare your essays and answers from your course modules. They mostly depend on AI to generate ideas and your task is to help the AI to curate those ideas according to your needs.

1. OddityAI

This AI homework helper tool can do your homework for you in minutes. Oddity AI uses advanced algorithms to analyze your question and provide a detailed answer. 

This tool can help you in any subject from summarizing literature to solving math questions and science topics. Its image upload option makes life so much easier. Although it will provide you with the explanation to the solutions, it’s best if you use it to solve only hard questions.

It’s cheap and you can get the unlimited question feature for under $10.

• You can save time during exam preparation by checking your answers with the AI
• No need to type the question manually
• Provides detailed answers
• May not be helpful for students who want to learn the material themselves.

We all know this tool and students can utilize the potential it holds to streamline their academic activities. I use ChatGPT to create outlines for my assignments and essays and I am not shy to admit that it does a far better job than me and certainly much quicker. 

It uses GPT-3, one of the most advanced natural language processing models, to provide accurate and helpful responses.

While this tool is very powerful, it doesn’t usually provide answers to very specific or niche questions. For very specific answers you have to train it by feeding it information and train it just like training a language model.

You don’t have to pay a single dime to use its features. It might change in the future when they bring in more complex features.

• Offers deep explanations or concise summaries
• Generates factual topic summaries for efficient learning
• Always accessible for queries and assistance
• Creates various text formats such as poems, scripts, and codes etc
• Support for multiple languages
• Prompts have to be done carefully to get expected outputs
• May generate misleading information occasionally
• Outputs may reflect biases from the training data

3. Homework AI App

Homework AI homework helper tool acts as your digital study buddy and provides personalized solutions. It is one of the simplest tools out there that you can use to summarize portions of your books, get your math answers and search ideas from literature.

It uses OpenAI’s ChatGPT language model to generate answers but curated towards educational purposes. The interface is easy to understand for students.

• Easy to use UI that lets you choose what subject you’ll be using it for
• It can answer quickly and has a easier learning curve than ChatGPT
• It’s best for creating outlines for essays and thesis
• No need to write down your question with the scan feature 
• Scans correctly most of the time if handwriting is legible i.e. easy to read
• No support for document upload.
• User needs to check spellings of the scanned text

AI Homework Checker

One of the tools that I found extremely helpful is an AI homework checker. Although the main audience for this tool is your teacher but you can use it as well to check if you have all the answers that your assignment is asking for.

4. GradeScope

Completed your homework but uncertain if it’s on the mark? With GradeScope you can sneak peek into how your work might be graded by your teacher. Gradescope simplifies the grading process by blending AI and machine learning. 

While teachers use this tool for efficient and fair grading, you can leverage it to identify areas for improvement in advance!

This tool has been tested and proven in the academic world by leading figures and millions of students with 700M+ questions graded.

All the subjects that can be objectively graded such as STEM subjects and subjects like Economics are available for checking.

It has basic and institutional pricing plans. As a student, the basic plan is for you. You need to contact them for the best price possible.

• Automated responses makes the task of checking grades quicker and less hassle
• Makes grading more quality and consistent using the same criteria for everyone
• Supports different types of questions and formats
• It helps collaboration and communication between students and teachers
• Easy integration with other platforms and tools for seamless assignment experience
• It can’t handle ambiguous or unclear answers
• Raises ethical or privacy concerns

The following tools are selected on the criteria of helping out your study sessions. You can use them to reduce the hassle of searching ideas and questions and then turning them into answers.

5. StudyMonkey 

This study tool will allow you to explore and get answers to inquiries spanning every subject and educational level. 

Whether you’re diving into elementary basics or tackling master’s level complexities, StudyMonkey’s automated responses will cater to diverse question formats. Plus, the tool can use your history of past questions and answers to help you with test preparations.

The tool is completely free to use as of writing this sentence. It can change in the future.

• Covers topics from elementary to master’s level that can help different learning needs and goals
• Fast answers help make your prep time more efficient
• Support for different types of questions and formats accommodating various learning styles and preferences
• Helps to improve grades using past questions and answers as it enhances learning retention and recall
• It may not always be 100% accurate or reliable
• Can’t handle scenarios that require human judgment and creativity

6. TutorEva

TutorEva is a simple but powerful study companion. It lets you seamlessly navigate through online study challenges. Using the latest GPT-4 from OpenAi, the TutorEva Extension swiftly addresses queries as they emerge on your screen or throughout entire web pages.

You can use it for free if you are content with the limited 2 questions/Day but the TutorEva Plus plan is there if you want the full power of the algorithm and support from the experts for under $15 per month.

You can delve into authenticated textbook solutions that are expert-backed and with step-by-step explanations. You can now put less effort into creating accurate answers.

• Can handle various types of questions and formats, such as word problems, algebra, graphing, and more
• See how your homework will be graded before even submitting it
• Chat with your chosen textbook for a fun and interactive study session
• Chatting with the AI about the answers improves topical comprehension
• Some information maybe outdated sometimes due to ChatGPT-4
• Limited ability to explain questions involving graphs or diagrams

This tool is a bit different from the two above as it offers a wide-ranging academic support system. ClassX covers an extensive array of subjects from elementary to high school levels. Additionally, it provides guidance through AI-driven project-based learning. It offers you structured assistance for various academic projects.

As for now, the tool is free to use for all users.

• Comprehensive coverage for different topics accommodates all types of students
• Project-oriented learning technique improves creativity and ability to work in a team
• Sample project ideas help to easily generate your own projects
• Supports voice input to ask questions easily
• May not provide enough explanation or feedback for certain questions/projects that might be crucial for the student’s comprehension

Plaito facilitates live AI tutoring sessions and offers personalized solutions and resources designed to accommodate diverse learning preferences and needs.

You can simply upload the docs, PDF or pptx file and let the guided Homework tool help you figure out the best way to complete the assignment. Or you can take the charge and prompt the Ai with questions and get your answers. There are 3 tools you can use such as the Summarizer, the Textbook chat and the Essay writer.

The textbook chat is a clever tool that you can use to talk with the textbook content and find curated and accurate answers.

Available in both free and paid versions, Plaito’s free plan allows you to earn coins through challenges. You can then use the coins to try different requests on the platform. On the other hand, the paid plan offers unrestricted access to Plaito’s suite of features and services. You can ask as many questions as you want.

• Real-time one-to-one assistance and feedback for improved learning outcomes and confidence
• User can customize answering method for their learning preferences for easier consumption of information
• Access many textbooks and curated answers saves your time
• It can handles various types of assignment and homework formats from pptx to pdf and docx
• Relies on experimental AI technology which may affect its accuracy and reliability
• May face trouble handling complex or subjective questions requiring human judgment

AI Research Assistant

While there are quite a few options you can choose for help with your research needs, we chose only one and that is Sourcely.

9. Sourcely

Sourcely one of the simplest but sufficiently powerful tools that has multiple tiers for people with varied needs. We would recommend the free tier for the students.

However, the free tier has limitations in terms of searching ability and filtering the results. You can only use up to 300 characters in the search box. 

For under $9 per month, the SourcelyPro plan has features that lets you filter by publication date with no limitation to characters. You can also download the PDF of the sources. You can imagine how easy life becomes with this feature.

• Lets you effortlessly find sources and summarizes them
• Easy to find information from a vast database of over 200 million papers with the precise search filters
• Lets you authenticate research data and find related articles quickly
• Aids in citation and bibliography creation as it can export in various formats
• Ethical concerns regarding future changes and potential privacy issues.

AI Writing Assistants

AI writing assistants are software applications that use artificial intelligence to assist you with various aspects of writing, such as grammar, spelling, style, tone, vocabulary, and more. Some of the AI writing assistants that can help you with your homework are:

10. Grammarly  AI Writing & Text Generation Tool

Grammarly is one of the best tools for Grammar Checking. The program uses advanced algorithms to detect and correct grammatical, spelling, and punctuation errors.

However, they added the latest Ai writing tool to their arsenal which can help you write essays and articles for your academic assignments. This tool combines grammarly’s spell and tone-checking algorithm and latest language models to generate texts and lets you customize it for the best possible result.

Additionally, I’d recommend taking the premium Grammarly plan so that you can use Grammarly’s powerful plagiarism checker tool. It can help you avoid making mistakes and getting low grades when you upload your homework in turnitin or other similar programs.

• Identifies a wide range of grammatical issues for you so that you don’t have to proofread manually
• Offers suggestions for enhancing vocabulary, sentence structure, clarity, and conciseness.
• Provides feedback aligned with specific writing goals, audience, and genre.
• Works seamlessly with various platforms like Microsoft Word, Google Docs, Gmail, etc.
• Premium plan includes a powerful plagiarism checker which will help the students to avoid plagiarism issues.
• The new AI writing tool is still in development and might not be as accurate or reliable as traditional writing methods.

11. Slidesgo (Homework Presentation) 

Slidesgo is one of the best template providers for visually appealing presentations. It provides templates catering to various subjects like science, math, history, and more. It has an AI tool that can help you create presentations in minutes. You only need to provide the material.

• Offers professionally designed templates enhancing the visual appeal of presentations.
• Customization of colors, fonts, icons, and images within slides means you can personalize it
• Supports popular formats like PowerPoint, Google Slides, and Keynote
• Helps in quick presentation creation by automatically generating slides based on provided material
• Provides access to thousands of templates so you can make your assignment look more fresh and unique
• Mainly generates slides based on what you provide and may not be suitable for creating entire presentations from scratch
• It requires an internet connection, which could be inconvenient for offline work.

These tools offer substantial assistance, with Grammarly focusing on refining writing mechanics while Slidesgo specializes in visually engaging presentations. 

AI Math Solvers

You can use ChatGPT to help with your mathematical needs but if you want something that is specially curated for maths. You can use the following tools. They are similar but with different strengths and weaknesses.

12. Smodin Omni

Smodin Omni is a free AI homework solver that claims to be the most accurate on the market. It uses various machine learning models to determine the answer to your question. 

The more questions you ask it, the smarter it becomes. It can solve problems from different subjects, such as algebra, calculus, geometry, physics, chemistry, and more.

Overall Smodin Omni presents a simple way to get fast answers and explanations. So that you can check your ability to solve and compare it with accurate answers from Smodin Omni’s solution. 

You can also learn while solving from its explanations. However, you have to learn how to write equations in the text prompt.

If you don’t want to learn how to write equations on the keyboard or don’t want the hassle of writing complex equations, the following AIR Math tool lets you avoid that step.

• Free access to all features.
• User-friendly and straightforward interface.
• Solves problems across various subjects.
• Claims to be the most accurate AI homework solver with quick solutions.
• Provides explanations aiding in understanding
• Users need to write equations, which can be challenging
• Might struggle with very advanced problems
• Offers final answers and explanations only, lacking step-by-step solutions

13. AIR Math

AIR Math is an AI homework helper tool that is best for advanced math. It provides step-by-step solutions to complex math problems and helps students understand the underlying concepts. It can handle topics such as linear algebra, differential equations, vector calculus, and more.

You can use it for free as long as you have tickets and avail free tickets by logging in daily and using the mobile app. But to use the tool without delay, you can subscribe to a plan through the Google Play Store or the Apple App Store.

• Detailed step-by-step solutions for complex math problems
• Handles advanced math topics effectively
• No need to right down your question with the image upload feature
• Standby tutor support means you don’t have to wait long to get your answers if AI fails
• Quick automated solutions that maximize study sessions
• Solution accuracy affected by image quality
• Free tickets are only available through the mobile app, which might not be convenient for all users

Conclusion : Best AI Homework Helping Apps for Students in 2024

Remember, every tough homework or study challenge is a chance to learn and grow. These AI helpers will always be there to make your academic journey smoother and challenges more manageable. 

However, they are just tools. It is you who will control how much and how far you will use it. Don’t make it substitute for actual study and the tools are built in such a way that you will have to study to properly use them. 

So, prepare to learn on your own while you use these to quicken your learning process and lessen the learning curve. These AI tools are your guide as your teachers are. Use them to make learned decisions in your academic journey., don’t let them make it for you.

Emily Watson

Recent posts.

Scholarships for Working Moms in 2024

Associate Degree vs Bachelor’s Degree

11 Main Reasons Why Students Drop out of College

At Back2College, we’re firm believers that the pursuit of knowledge is an ageless odyssey. 

10 Best AI Homework Helper Tools to Get Instant Homework Help

• Technology & Innovation
• AI & Machine Learning
• Digital Media & Creative Tech
• Content Creation Tools
• Software & Applications
• Productivity Tools
• Software & Apps

Advancements in AI technology have made it possible for students to get comprehensive homework help outside of the classroom. AI homework help tools are specifically designed to save students time by providing easy-to-understand explanations and accurate solutions to homework questions.

If you’re looking for an AI homework helper to help you excel in your studies, you’ve come to the right place. Here in this article, we’ve compiled a list of the best AI homework help tools on the market.

10 Best AI Homework Help Tools

• HIX Tutor – Best AI Homework Helper Overall
• ExamUp – Best AI Homework Helper for Any Subject
• Genius Tutor – Best AI Homework Helper for Detailed Support
• Question AI – Best AI Homework Helper for High Accuracy
• HomeworkAI – Best AI Homework Helper for Flexible Input Options
• AI Math – Best AI Homework Helper for Math Learning
• Brainly – Best AI Homework Helper for Personalized Homework Help
• OddityAI – Best AI Homework Helper for Essay Writing
• AI Tutors – Best AI Homework Helper for Mobile Use
• StudyMonkey – Best AI Homework Helper for Homework Review

1. HIX Tutor – Best AI Homework Helper Overall

HIX Tutor is a homework AI that can help you relieve your homework stress. This leading AI homework helper provides students with step-by-step solutions that clearly explain how to solve the problem in detail.

This AI tutor tool harnesses the power of GPT models with custom enhancements to provide accurate homework help. It covers a wide range of subjects, including math, physics, chemistry, biology and literature, and caters to students from high school through college-level.

HIX Tutor is a convenient assignment aid that is available 24/7 for comprehensive homework help. Just run the homework problem through the sophisticated tool and it will instantly prepare a reliable solution.

• Covers all subjects, including foreign languages.
• Boosts productivity.
• Can help students prepare for exams.
• Requires users to upgrade to a paid subscription for unlimited usage.

Get started with HIX Tutor today!

2. ExamUp – Best AI Homework Helper for Any Subject

ExamUp is a powerful homework AI tool for assistance with nearly any school subject, from math and physics to literature and geography. ExamUp boasts a 99% accuracy rate, giving its users confidence that the solutions they receive are accurate.

ExamUp generates in-depth answers which can help students gain a deep understanding of their assignments and build key skills in a wide range of subjects. It can offer help for students struggling for last-minute exam preparation or a particularly tricky homework question.

You try ExamUp at no cost with the tool’s free trial. To continue using the AI homework helper unlimitedly, you’ll need to upgrade to a paid subscription.

• Can help keep students motivated to learn.
• Explains concepts found in textbooks.
• Offers a personalized learning experience.
• Limited free trial.
• No mobile app available.

Discover how ExamUp can help you with your homework!

3. GeniusTutor – Best AI Homework Helper for Detailed Support

GeniusTutor is an AI homework helper that can dive deep into the concepts and formulas required to solve problems. It is able to promote comprehension by providing students with detailed explanations of their homework questions.

The AI homework help tool provides a step-by-step breakdown that is tailored to the question at hand. With this powerful homework AI, its users can easily solve hard homework problems in many subjects, such as mathematics, chemistry, physics, biology, and even foreign languages.

You can experiment with GeniusTutor’s capabilities for free, no credit card required. With its budget-friendly subscription plans and focus on accessibility, GeniusTutor provides a comprehensive yet affordable AI tutoring assistance for your study.

• Key rules, theorems, and formulas are highlighted.
• Geared toward high school and college students.
• Offers a free trial and budget-friendly subscriptions.
• May have difficulty reading messy handwriting of uploaded documents/images.

Explore the capabilities of Genius Tutor for greater success!

4. Question AI – Best AI Homework Helper for High Accuracy

Question AI is a powerful AI homework helper that assists students with all types of study tasks. Many students rely on this innovative AI homework helper to get in-depth solutions to challenging homework problems or prepare for important exams.

The AI homework tool uses advanced AI learning models to analyze complex homework questions and generate rapid responses with 98% accuracy. Question AI can also answer questions in over 100 languages so you can get your homework help in your own languages.

The innovative tool offers multiple flexible input options. Simply type in the homework question or upload an image or document of the problem, and Question AI will analyze your question and provide the accurate answer.

• Get homework help 24/7.
• Covers math, chemistry, biology, and more.
• Users can try it at no cost.
• Free plan is restricted

Try Question AI and see how it helps you find the right solutions!

5. HomeworkAI – Best AI Homework Helper for Flexible Input Options

Ease of use is an important factor when selecting an AI homework help tool. HomeworkAI is a robust AI-powered homework help platform that offers maximum flexibility by supporting a variety of file formats. Type in the homework question directly or upload a text file, such as a DOC, DOCX, PDF, or an image file like PNG or JPEG.

HomeworkAI is able to instantly deliver step-by-step solutions that help students tackle their assignments in a fraction of the time it would normally take without AI help. It can act as an on-demand virtual tutor available 24/7. And its user-friendly features and accurate responses have helped many students reduce stress and boost performance.

• Tailored to all education levels.
• Can analyze and provide feedback on textbook material.
• Helps students prepare for exams.
• Does not offer a mobile app.
• Does not accept the uploads of large documents.

Leverage the power of HomeworkAI for all of your school assignments!

6. AI Math – Best AI Homework Helper for Math Learning

AI Math is an AI-powered tool for students who need extra help improving their math skills. The innovative AI homework help tool covers all branches of math, including but not limited to, arithmetic, geometry, calculus, and trigonometry.

The sophisticated AI math helper has a 99% accuracy rate and generates responses in over 30 languages. It is also available 24/7 to give students assistance with homework anytime, anywhere.

More than just providing a final answer, AI Math walks students through each step of the homework question to facilitate a deeper understanding of the topic. This can result in an overall better learning experience.

• Dedicated to providing all kinds of math study help.
• Free to get started.
• Accessible 24/7.
• Only provides AI math help.

Get comprehensive math support with AI Math!

7. Brainly – Best AI Homework Helper for Personalized Homework Help

Brainly is more than just an AI homework tool. It’s a vast community that supports students struggling with assignments.

The AI homework help tool offers both an AI tutor and live expert explanations. Brainly is also improving all the time, with AI-generated study sets coming soon to help students prepare for tests.

Brainly promotes a Scan to Solve homework approach. Download the free app onto your iOS or Android device and use your camera to take a photo of the question. Within seconds, the AI homework helper will deliver a detailed explanation.

It’s free to sign up and start using Brainly. Its subscription plans include a semi-annual subscription for $18 billed every 6 months and an annual plan for $24 billed once a year.

• Caters to students, parents, and educators.
• Provides expert-verified answers.
• Users can scan to solve homework questions.
• Requires a paid subscription after the free trial.
• The interface can be difficult to navigate.

8. OddityAI – Best AI Homework Helper for Essay Writing

OddityAI maximizes student learning by covering a wide range of subjects, including English, history, science, and more. This AI homework tool utilizes advanced AI algorithms that rapidly generate step-by-step explanations on a user-friendly interface.

One of the OddityAI’s best features is its help with essay writing. This homework AI tool allows you to generate essay ideas, improve sentences, and assess work. OddityAI is also equipped with spell and grammar checks to help you create error-free content.

OddityAI is free to try. For unlimited access, you’ll need to subscribe to its $9.99/ month subscription plan. The AI homework help tool also offers a buy as you go option for $4.99 for 150 uses.

• Offers 10 free uses.
• Can upload pictures and instantly get answers.
• Save time on complex assignments.
• May generate hard-to-understand responses sometimes.

9. AI Tutors – Best AI Homework Helper for Mobile Use

AI Tutors is a learning platform that can provide convenient homework help when it comes to doing homework on the go. It offers mobile apps to download, and once you’ve installed it on your phone, you can start asking homework questions immediately.

If you can’t find the solution to a question, AI Tutors will connect you to a live tutor in real time via Zoom who will walk you through the problem. Live tutors have extensive experience in many subjects, ensuring credible solutions to homework questions.

To start using AI Tutors, you need to create a free account. You’ll then have the option to create a detailed homework request post. Students can choose how much to offer for each question with a minimum price of $1.

• The app is available for Android and iOS devices.
• Offers tools like Google Translate and a plagiarism checker.
• Has a user-friendly interface.
• Live tutors may not always know the answers.
• Students must sign up to try the tool.

10. StudyMonkey – Best AI Homework Helper for Homework Review

StudyMonkey serves as your personal AI tutor in a wide range of subjects, such as algebra, history, math, language, computer science, and more.

The ChatGPT homework tool alternative allows you to choose a grade level from first grade to expert level to ensure the accuracy of solutions. You can also check the history of the questions you previously asked to verify their answers or prepare for upcoming exams.

• Students can see and study their past questions and answers.
• The tool offers detailed steps and explanations.
• Users can ask unlimited questions for just $8 per month.
• The free plan limits users to 3 daily questions.

Wrapping Up

AI homework helper tools are rapidly transforming the way students and educators approach homework and exams. The 10 AI homework helpers we’ve listed above are user-friendly tools that expedite the learning process, enabling students to better understand key concepts and solve difficult problems.

Among these tools, our most recommended one is HIX Tutor. It offers a personalized and interactive experience that taps into the potential of students. This leading AI homework helper uses cutting-edge technology to make everything easier in homework and study, making them excel in a wide range of subjects.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

• Crowdfunding
• Cryptocurrency
• Digital Banking
• Digital Payments
• Investments
• Console Gaming
• Mobile Gaming
• VR/AR Gaming
• Gadget Usage
• Gaming Tips
• Online Safety
• Software Tutorials
• Tech Setup & Troubleshooting
• Buyer’s Guides
• Comparative Analysis
• Gadget Reviews
• Service Reviews
• Software Reviews
• Mobile Devices
• PCs & Laptops
• Smart Home Gadgets
• Digital Photography
• Video & Music Streaming
• Online Security
• Online Services
• Web Hosting
• WiFi & Ethernet
• Browsers & Extensions
• Communication Platforms
• Operating Systems
• AI & Machine Learning
• Cybersecurity
• Emerging Tech
• IoT & Smart Devices
• Virtual & Augmented Reality
• Latest News
• AI Developments
• Fintech Updates
• Gaming News
• New Product Launches

• Fintechs and Traditional Banks Navigating the Future of Financial Services
• AI Writing How Its Changing the Way We Create Content

Related Post

How to find the best midjourney alternative in 2024: a guide to ai anime generators, unleashing young geniuses: how lingokids makes learning a blast, 10 best ai math solvers for instant homework solutions, 10 best ai humanizers to humanize ai text with ease, sla network: benefits, advantages, satisfaction of both parties to the contract, related posts.

23 Study Apps and Sites to Help You Ace Your Exams

15 Best Sites to Play Cool Math Games for Kids & Adults

Character.ai Surpasses ChatGPT In Mobile App Usage In The US

Artificial Intelligence In Education: Uses And Applications

EssayPro.com Review: Best Essay Writing Services for Academic Success

Best Research Paper Writing Services: The Top 7 You Need to Know About

12 Best Paraphrasing Tool Sites You Can Use Online

Recent stories.

Fintechs and Traditional Banks: Navigating the Future of Financial Services

AI Writing: How It’s Changing the Way We Create Content

How to Know When it’s the Right Time to Buy Bitcoin

How to Sell Counter-Strike 2 Skins Instantly? A Comprehensive Guide

10 Proven Ways For Online Gamers To Avoid Cyber Attacks And Scams

• Privacy Overview
• Strictly Necessary Cookies

This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.

Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings.

If you disable this cookie, we will not be able to save your preferences. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again.

The AI That Does Your Homework

Upload a worksheet or use a homework ai helper that is specially designed to provide you with all your homework solutions..

We have a number of AI bots that are specially designed to help with all subjects and all grade levels.

Just take a picture of your homework and our high powered AI will provide you with all the answers.

4 AI Tools For Students

Oddity AI is the groundbreaking new artificial intelligence that students have been dreaming of for years. This AI homework helper has revolutionized the way people approach their schoolwork, making it easier than ever to get work done quickly and efficiently. With Oddity AI, users can ask questions directly to the AI and receive instant answers in seconds. The AI not only gives accurate answers but also provides detailed explanations of how each answer was reached so users can gain a deeper understanding of their schoolwork.

AI Essay Writer

Write high quality essays, in your own writing style, in seconds!

Math Answers

No matter the math problem, simple or advanced, OddityAI's powerful homework helper can solve the problems for you.

Flashcard and quiz generator

Upload a picture of your hand-written notes and automatically convert them into flashcards and quizzes to help you study.

English Help

From grammar to literature analysis, our AI is here to assist you with any task you may be struggling with.

Science Answers

From biology to chemistry to physics, our homework AI is equipped to assist you with any topic you may be struggling with. Need help understanding a complex scientific concept? Want to know how to complete a lab report? Our AI that does homework is here to provide you with accurate and reliable answers.

Your browser is not supported

Sorry but it looks as if your browser is out of date. To get the best experience using our site we recommend that you upgrade or switch browsers.

Find a solution

• Skip to main content
• Skip to navigation

• Back to parent navigation item
• Collections
• Sustainability in chemistry
• Simple rules
• Teacher well-being hub
• Women in chemistry
• Global science
• Escape room activities
• Decolonising chemistry teaching
• Teaching science skills
• Post-lockdown teaching support
• Get the print issue
• RSC Education

• More from navigation items

Do your homework

Are your students using AI bots to do theirs? After all, AI is readily available and capable as we found out

We gave ChatGPT a prompt to ‘write an editorial (300 words) for a readership of teachers on the danger of students using AI bots to do their homework for them’. This what it produced:

Source: © Shutterstock

Could you spot a chemistry homework written by an AI bot?

As teachers, we have all seen the impact that technology can have on the classroom. From smartphones and tablets to educational software and online resources, there are countless tools that can help our students learn and grow. However, there is also a dark side to technology in education, and it is something that we need to be aware of and address.

One of the biggest concerns is the use of AI bots to do students’ homework for them. With the rise of artificial intelligence and the increasing availability of AI-powered tools, it is becoming easier and easier for students to use these bots to complete their assignments without actually learning the material.

We need to make it clear that cheating is unacceptable

On the surface, this may seem like a harmless way for students to save time and effort, but it is actually a serious problem for several reasons. First and foremost, using AI bots to do homework undermines the entire purpose of education. The goal of homework is to reinforce the concepts that students are learning in class, not to simply churn out answers without understanding them. By using AI bots to do their homework, students are cheating themselves out of a valuable learning opportunity.

Furthermore, using AI bots to do homework sets a dangerous precedent. It teaches students that they can take shortcuts and cheat their way through school, rather than putting in the hard work and effort that are necessary for success. This attitude can carry over into other areas of their lives, leading to a lack of motivation and a lack of real-world skills.

As teachers, it is our responsibility to educate our students about the dangers of using AI bots to do their homework. We need to make it clear that cheating is unacceptable and that the only way to truly learn and grow is through hard work and dedication. By taking a strong stance on this issue, we can help our students develop the skills and values that will serve them well throughout their lives. 

1 Reader's comment

Only registered users can comment on this article., more from opinion.

Why we should ditch working scientifically

2024-04-12T06:00:00Z By Ben Rogers

Explore a new approach to this this national curriculum strand, grounded in contemporary cognitive science

How do you feel about working in science education?

2024-02-29T05:00:00Z By Lisa Clatworthy

Tell us what it’s like by taking part in the Science teaching survey, and we can improve our support for you

Making science teaching more inclusive

2024-01-04T06:52:00Z By Nasima Hassan

Let’s introduce more representative examples in our chemistry classrooms

• Contributors
• Print issue
• Email alerts

Site powered by Webvision Cloud

Challenging technology to serve the public good.

Teachers Are Using AI to Create New Worlds, Help Students with Homework, and Teach English

Machine Learning

Around the world, these seven teachers are making AI work for them and their students By Ross Teixeira

Share This Article

Welcome to The Markup, where we use investigative reporting, data analysis, and software engineering to challenge technology to serve the public good. Sign up for  Klaxon , a newsletter that delivers our stories and tools directly to your inbox.

AI seems to be everywhere these days—and more and more, that includes the classroom. Teachers are racing to reckon with the kinds of AI tools, like ChatGPT, that let students breeze through assignments. But beyond discussions of what counts as “cheating,” what happens when teachers use AI?

Frequently overworked and underpaid, teachers are less often talked about as users of time-saving AI tools. This raises many questions: Can such tools be trusted to create curriculum? What happens to the student data that gets fed into any of the myriad new AI startups? Will human teachers one day be replaced?

In this article, seven teachers across the world share their insights on AI tools for educators. You will hear a host of varied opinions and perspectives on everything from whether AI could hasten the decline of learning foreign languages to whether AI-generated lesson plans are an infringement on teachers’ rights. A common theme emerged from those we spoke with: just as the internet changed education, AI tools are here to stay, and it is prudent for teachers to adapt.

Vincent Scotto

K-12 STEAM Coordinator at Pittsburgh Public Schools (Pittsburgh, Pa.)

When I first approached Vincent Scotto, a STEAM coordinator at Pittsburgh Public Schools, he tested me. Before honoring my request to interview him about how his district uses AI, he asked me to prove I was a human. Prior to this, I had never considered myself a robot, but here’s what I wrote in my initial message to Scotto:

As I read it over, it was humbling to realize how effortlessly an AI language model could have spit out my message. I braced myself for a conversation with someone I assumed would be a steadfast AI skeptic.

After I passed his challenge, however, I soon learned that he was not such a Luddite at all. Scotto’s views echo the views of many teachers I talked to: with the right safeguards, AI tools can save teachers enormous amounts of time while giving students new, creative ways to explore and practice material.

Scotto has worked in education for over 15 years, starting as an elementary school teacher focused mainly on math and science and working up to his current position as a STEAM coordinator. When he realized that his district did not have a plan for computer science education, he worked to help make one, turning it into a “big focal point” of his district. With the aid of a Pennsylvania state grant , Scotto has worked to make Pittsburgh Public Schools “more 21st century ready,” including readying the district for the coming wave of generative AI.

Hello World

What Happens When Your Art Is Used to Train AI

A conversation with web cartoonist Dorothy Gambrell on the curdled internet, labor, and how we became just numbers

“Most of my role is expanding teachers’ ability to serve students in the way that they always intended when they became a teacher,” he said. But the reality of being a teacher is often very different from how budding teachers imagine it to be. “I’m meeting with a teacher and I’ll ask them how things are going, and usually it’s ‘I’m swamped,’ you know. ‘I don’t have time to talk right now, I still haven’t submitted my lesson plans’ or something to that effect.”

Scotto said he is always looking for new tools to save teachers time, and generative AI is one of his favorite new recommendations—especially tools that are geared toward teachers who are less familiar with technology. MagicSchool AI, a suite of educational AI tools, is one of the most user-friendly tools that Scotto has found, and he frequently demonstrates it to busy teachers.

“I’ll ask them, ‘What’s the topic that you’re going to do for next week?’” he said. Then he plugs the topic into MagicSchool AI, along with his estimation of how much class time that teacher has to teach the particular subject, and lets the AI generate a set of lesson plans. “When a teacher sees how fast [the AI works], they immediately sign up.”

One of Scotto’s greatest fears is privacy, and he recommends that teachers not put any personally identifying information about students—even anonymous demographic information—into AI tools, unless the tool has been specifically approved by the district’s board of education. “For example, ‘My class has 7 Black students, 3 White students’… don’t even put information like that because eventually it becomes a collective of information that you’ve input and… they could make a profile on your students.” He said he worries that the data could be shared or sold to third parties which may use that data for different purposes, putting students at risk now or “50 years from now.” 

“We cannot rely on ‘the goodness’ of an organization that intentionally collects data,” Scotto said.

He also stressed the importance of AI policy in protecting students: “People on the ground level, without guidance, may make decisions that [break] policy or law unintentionally. Without AI policy at the federal, state, and local level, these accidents can happen and likely are happening in isolation,” he said.

Meet Nightshade—A Tool Empowering Artists to Fight Back Against AI  

A newly released research paper outlines a tool artists can use to make their work act like “poison” if it is ingested by an AI image generator

On the issue of copyright, his views were mixed: “Any teacher will tell you that they have borrowed and stolen every idea they’ve had for their classroom. Not a single teacher I know believes they have an original lesson plan.” 

He referred me to Teachers Pay Teachers, an Etsy-like online marketplace for teaching materials. “Kids just deserve the best education they can get, and if that means borrowing lesson plans from a bot, I’ll take it. If we’re just teaching lessons, it doesn’t really matter where we got it from. And if the large corporations such as, you know, Pearson, want to sue an individual teacher for copying their stuff with AI, good luck. We’re all in trouble. It is a battle they will lose in the end, because we’ll just stop purchasing their material all together. So it’s a double-edged sword in that way.”

His concerns from AI and copyright come not from the classroom, but on a personal level. “I’m into music and art, and there’s a big worry that artists will lose their jobs, their life blood, because we’re having AI create renditions of Andy Warhol, like, peaches, you know. So I personally don’t use those just because I have personal connections with people that it upsets.” 

However, Scotto said that he did not have a “moral qualm” for a couple reasons: “People who really care about art are not buying things that were created by, you know, pixels. They’re looking for a human-created thing with brush strokes and all these things.”

Second, Scotto frequently searches online for Creative Commons images to use in his presentations, and sees no harm in asking an AI to step in. “Could I use a graphics AI to come up with something really quickly, and it would serve my purpose? I sure could. In that instance, it would be innocuous.” Trying to sell AI art or pass it off as your own, however, is “where… it gets into a conundrum.”

Ultimately, just as the calculator revolutionized how students approach math, Scotto thinks AI will change education and teachers should start to adapt. “You’ve got to get in front of [AI] even if you don’t have the kids use it. You’ve got to know what this is, what it’s capable of.”

Sean Fennessy

Teacher at Olney High School, Philadelphia

Sean Fennessy, a geometry teacher, has been in and out of education for around 15 years, dabbling in IT, web design, and activism. His diverse teaching experience has led him to embrace an “unschooling” approach driven by exploration. He uses ChatGPT heavily in the classroom to teach students a lot more than just how to solve math problems. 

“So what I do with AI for example, in my classroom, is I have each class have a government, or each class is a country. And I vested them with resources.” Fennessy uses ChatGPT to create a fictional universe, “Fennlandia,” in which students hold elections, stage uprisings, and even purchase snacks in the classroom. He uses the paid version of ChatGPT, allowing him to create a custom chatbot that is confined to this fantasy world. 

What does this have to do with geometry? 

“The most important part [of geometry] is the application of logic, right? I mean, no one’s going on doing trigonometric functions in the real world… And honestly all of the ones who do, they’re gonna [use] a calculator, right?” 

Instead, Fennessy teaches students how to use ChatGPT to code their own small applications to solve problems by using clear, logical language: “AI is going to be really literal about what you’re putting in,” he said, so students must learn to be precise with their instructions. When he demonstrated this approach to his principal in an impromptu classroom observation, his principal was enthusiastic.

His motivations aren’t hidden: “I understand geometry is the end of the line for a lot of my kids. And so, what am I going to give them that’s gonna be useful when they leave here?”

Beyond Fennlandia, he’s used it for other tasks, like generating letters of recommendation for students. He likens ChatGPT to his own children and has watched its skills evolve at roughly the same pace. “It really felt like I was talking to an incredibly bright and amazingly knowledgeable version of my five-year-old for a little while. And then it kind of moved on and I’m like, oh this is like talking to my nine-year-old.” Today, he says, “It’s a college [level] or beyond.”

Plagiarism Detection Tools Offer a False Sense of Accuracy

The tools that likely brought down Harvard president Claudine Gay are improperly used on students all the time

Of course, not all of Fennessy’s uses for ChatGPT are fantasy. One thing he’s working on for the next semester is creating longer projects that students can complete concurrently with each unit of the geometry course. “One of the problems with projects, especially in math, is always like hey, here’s this project that’s supposed to be a capstone… but you haven’t learned half of [the material] yet.” Fennessy hopes to use ChatGPT to fix this problem by creating projects that unfold over time, to see the bigger picture of how to apply their skills.

Fennessy isn’t frustrated when students cheat with or without AI, but it “doesn’t look like a really good use of [students’] time,” he said. If he catches a student cheating, he asks them to solve new problems on the board to test their understanding.

As far as worrying about whether technology will ever replace him, Fennessy says he firmly believes the “emotional support of a teacher cannot be replaced.” If AI helps his ability to be a cheerleader for his students and spend more one-on-one time  with them, then he said he is all for it.

Kim Maybin

Tech Integration Specialist at Ozark City Schools (Ozark, AL)

Kim Maybin taught seventh-grade language arts for the majority of her career. When the opportunity to become a technology integration specialist opened up, she jumped on it. Now she oversees around 200 teachers in her district, training them on using emerging technology to be more effective and efficient with what she calls a “work smarter, not harder mentality… because you’re literally exhausted in that classroom,” she said.

When recommending tools for teachers, cost is one of her main factors: “I’m always looking for something free because we don’t have a lot of money to spend on tools.”

Maybin frequently mentors teachers on how to create custom material for different students using AI tools. As a middle school teacher, she often found herself creating additional structure or “sentence starters” to help struggling students complete their assignments and generating multiple versions of tests that target different depths of knowledge, depending on individual student needs. “Why not let [AI] make the two tests for me? Because now I have more time to focus on the bigger needs in my classroom.”

Maybin thinks it is imperative that teachers get familiar with AI and teach students how to use it appropriately. “If you don’t teach the students how to use it, they are gonna abuse it,” she said. Many of the teachers Maybin works with are initially afraid of the potential for students to cheat with AI, and so they try to stay away from AI in all forms. But if a teacher never mentions AI, she said, students might think they are getting the upper hand on an unaware teacher. “When the students are using it, [teachers are] like ‘They’re using AI!’ and, well, you didn’t mention it!”

The Breakdown Machine Learning

How to Buy Ed Tech That Isn’t Evil

Four critical questions parents and educators should be asking

Instead, she feels teachers need to get more creative by creating “AI-proof” assignments. It’s less difficult than it may sound. Tools like ChatGPT are terrible, she said, at tasks like solving an AP English exam because they don’t have emotions or personal experiences that AP graders are looking for. Requiring students to thoughtfully decide which aspects of their own lives are relevant to the topic of an essay engages them in the subject in a uniquely human way.

Maybin’s district may be a barrier to the adoption of AI by students and teachers alike. Due to privacy concerns, her district initially banned all AI tools. It took convincing from Maybin for her district to begin opening access to AI for teachers, but even then, each application has to be explicitly approved. The tools are still off limits for students, who use locked-down Chromebooks that permit only a small number of education-related programs—both for privacy reasons and concerns about plagiarism. 

For teachers who are excited about AI tools, Maybin said they should be aware of being overly trusting of the tools’ accuracy. Maybin recalled that her colleague recommended teachers query ChatGPT about how comfortable it was with a certain topic on a scale from one to 10. “And if ChatGPT gives you nine or 10… it’s really comfortable. [If] it gives you three or four… you need to check it,” although she recommends verifying ChatGPT’s responses no matter the level of its claimed expertise.

Peter Amoabil

Executive Director, Rural Literacy Solutions (Tamale, Ghana)

Tamale, Ghana is one of the fastest growing cities in West Africa . It is also the capital of Northern Ghana, the region of Ghana with the lowest literacy rates across all ages. Peter Amoabil has been fighting to change that. A teacher for over 14 years, Amoabil balances his duties as a full-time teacher with directing Rural Literacy Solutions, a nonprofit he founded in 2019 to close the literacy gap by offering after-school English literacy programs in partnership with local primary schools.

Recently, Amoabil has been sharing new AI tools to help his teachers. I told him that when I tested an AI tool to generate an explanation of a random topic at a second-grade reading level, the text included words that a second-grade student would not be expected to know. As it turned out, Amoabil found the same thing. “The secret about AI is picking the right tool you need at the moment,” he said.

How to Use Sound and AI to Protect the Environment

A conversation with Bourhan Yassin

Another challenge he sees with AI tools is their understanding of local languages. English is the national language of Ghana, so students are expected to read and write English, but the most widely spoken language in northern Ghana is Dagbani. Amoabil has used translation tools several times to translate textbooks into Dagbani, and he often needs to manually edit the translation afterwards to correct inaccuracies.

Despite the challenges, he’s a big fan of many of the tools, including Storybook AI , which generates stories based on a prompt. Amoabil’s teachers have found it to be a great way to create additional reading materials for students to practice reading, while also keeping students engaged by letting them generate stories on any topic they are interested in. He said his students are fascinated by AI and often ask how it works.

Amoabil’s teachers range in age from 26 to 59 years old—60 is the retirement age in Ghana—and most of them are excited about using AI tools. The benefits of Amoabil’s after-school programs are clear: he’s seen English literacy rise substantially for enrolled fourth graders. Amoabil credited AI for some of the improvement, saying that it has helped teachers with a large portion of their workload.

Aaron Shi

Training Coordinator in the Foreign Language Teaching and Resources Center, National Taiwan University

Aaron Shi taught English for over nine years before becoming a teacher training coordinator at the Foreign Language Teaching and Resources Center at National Taiwan University (NTU) in 2022. He mostly works with experienced professors and teachers who’ve been teaching English and other foreign languages, including many who have been teaching college for 10 to 20 years.

Among the teachers that Shi trains, he said he has found older teachers to be generally more interested in learning about AI tools than younger ones. Shi said that many young teachers were too busy fighting for tenure to consider new teaching methods or that they simply felt more comfortable experimenting with AI tools on their own.

One of the most powerful uses of AI, according to Shi, is to create free teaching materials. He envisions a world in which AI can provide personalized learning materials for each student without the prohibitive cost barrier of standardized textbooks.

About 60 to 70 percent of courses at NTU are taught in English, and that number is likely to increase as the Taiwanese government pushes for English to become a required language by 2030. Some of the greatest opposition to this policy has been from teachers: The National Federation of Teachers Unions (NFTU) has argued that teachers are not prepared to teach subjects in English when they are not fluent in English themselves, and students may suffer for the same reason.

AI Detection Tools Falsely Accuse International Students of Cheating

Stanford study found AI detectors are biased against non-native English speakers

Shi said AI tools can help facilitate cross-cultural communication in ways that support and even go beyond the government’s goals for bilingual education. He said that even if a student does not learn English well, AI tools can help students interact with the English-speaking world. This is especially true for students who choose to stay in Taiwan after graduation and who may not use English frequently in the future compared to those who move abroad.

However, tools that remove language barriers also pose a threat to languages themselves, Shi said. Shi said that the rapid adoption of AI tools may accelerate the decline of Taiwanese languages. According to Shi, Taiwanese people don’t want to speak the same Mandarin language that people in China speak for political reasons, and mainstream AI language models don’t incorporate enough Taiwanese Mandarin sources for results to sound natural.

Along with the rapid adoption of TikTok by young Taiwanese—which he said features predominantly content from China—Shi sees a continuing decline in the standard for Taiwanese Mandarin, as people become less able to differentiate between “authentic” or “good” Taiwanese Mandarin and Standard Chinese.

The same is true for other Taiwanese languages, like Taiwanese Hokkien and the indigenous Formosan languages. “It is hard for AI to be proficient in these languages due to the very limited amount of data,” he wrote in a Facebook message after our interview. “I think the Hokkien dialect (or the Taiwanese language) can also be difficult for AIs to learn, but the number of active users of this dialect/language is, at least, much more than those of the Formosan languages.”

Shi said AI won’t support indigenous languages because it’s not commercially viable to use them. He also said some of these issues are baked into the education system. According to Shi, many parents think it’s O.K. for primary schools to teach indigenous languages in those areas, but in secondary school, students start competing to gain access to better colleges, so they need to learn Chinese and English in order to stay competitive.

Shi said that teachers remain essential to the classroom for the foreseeable future. Even if it is possible to generate teaching materials for an entire course with AI, two teachers might create entirely different versions of the same course simply because of how they prompt the AI. He said this highlighted the importance of educators: knowing how to plan and organize a course requires human insight.

Karle Delo

Curriculum Director and EdTech Influencer, Michigan

Karle Delo, a science teacher and curriculum director in Michigan—and edtech influencer as “CoachKarle” on TikTok —shares reviews of AI tools with teachers worldwide. She has personally tried and reviewed hundreds of AI tools for teachers, and she walked me through how a teacher might apply them in practice.

Delo had me imagine a teacher trying to find an exciting way to teach a lesson on volcanoes and earthquakes. There are five ways she describes AI tools as being handy for this lesson:

• They can be a brainstorming buddy for creative ideas. "Maybe AI could help me think of a 'Would you rather?' question or a real-world scenario." 
• AI tools can parse a video about volcanoes that the teacher might play for students, and generate a bullet point summary for students to refer to. 
• An AI could differentiate learning and reproduce an article about a real-world earthquake at different reading levels for different students.
• The AI can take real-world earthquake data and write an easily readable analysis. "Normally I'd have to purchase a really, really good curriculum, or I'd have to spend a lot of time putting [the data] in a format that my students can digest because if I just look up earthquake and volcano data, it's probably going to be not in a very student-friendly format.” 
• AI is great at generating review questions for students to practice the material.

While AI tools can be powerful for teachers, Delo reminds teachers that they need to be aware of their strengths and weaknesses. “AI could be used to create busy work for kids and that’s not very meaningful,” she said, and teachers might end up with boring slide decks and low-quality multiple-choice quizzes. 

How AI Is Helping Us Learn About Birds

Machine learning is powering new insights into how birds migrate—and forecasts about where they’ll go next

Delo said that since the internet made just about anything a Google search away, science education has evolved from lecturing on rote facts to engaging students in a process of analysis. In the same way, she believes teachers should approach AI with honest conversations about its potential.

Some teachers see AI tools as closing gaps in access to quality education materials. According to Delo, there is a common misconception that all teachers at all schools are expected to create their lessons from scratch. In reality, it’s common for teachers and districts to purchase curricula from various companies. In the past, this has led to wealthier schools having access to better curricula, while less wealthy schools need to create more content on their own. But AI can help bridge that gap. “If I were a parent, I would want my kid to have a teacher that uses AI,” she said.

She cautions teachers, however, to adhere to privacy laws regarding the use of AI tools. “I know ChatGPT is not approved for use by anyone under the age of 13. When an AI tool has an age restriction, schools better follow it.”

Ultimately, Delo does not see AI replacing teachers anytime soon. “When you think about your favorite teacher, it’s usually a teacher who inspired you. I’ve never really been inspired by AI. I’ve gotten excited about it, but I’ve never been like ‘Wow, this ChatGPT really believes in me today, and that feels good,’” she said. “If technology could have been a replacement or a silver bullet for education, then students would [have] come out of the pandemic with flying colors. And we didn’t see that. We saw that a lot of students struggled with online learning. So I do think the human element of teaching is so important.”

Nathaniel Decker

Nathaniel Decker, an English, poetry, and public speaking teacher in Philadelphia, said he was worried that AI tools would change expectations of teacher productivity. “Teachers using these AI programs to be efficient and save themselves time is great,” he said. 

“I’m not anti-technology, anti-automation. I’m anti those things replacing the opportunity for people to make a living off of their work,” he said. Decker, who is involved in the school union, said that teachers should have control over their own use of AI. “I’m fine with teachers using AI, as long as we’re not forced to use AI.”

Decker also said teachers should be contractually in control of their IP, and that they should not be forced to give up their lesson plans to be used in an AI model. “I don’t trust that the people in charge are gonna have everyone’s best intentions at heart,” he said.

One useful area of AI tools for Decker is making sure that teaching materials hit certain mandatory standards from the district and discovering how existing materials might cover more standards than anyone realized. “I intend for this [lesson] to teach this skill, but [it] is also touching on these 12 other skills… That’s a cool way to use [AI] that I never would have thought to use.”

Zine: How We Illustrate Tech (and AI) at The Markup

A lot of what we cover is tough to visualize. We've developed a number of tricks to help—and a comic to tell you all about them

When it comes to students using AI, Decker said, “Anything involving text, writing, or speaking is gonna be the trickiest” to handle as a teacher. When a student submits work to Decker that doesn’t make sense, he has a hard time telling whether the student is making a purposeful creative choice, struggling with the material, or using an AI to generate their work. He cares less about the end product than the creative process, so he does not want students using AI to skip this process. ChatGPT is still banned on Olney High School’s network.

Some teachers have begun to use AI to evaluate student work, but he said that teachers disagree on when it’s appropriate to do so. Decker said, “From an English teacher’s perspective, reading essays and poetry and giving feedback [with AI], I don’t think [teachers] should do that. I don’t know how they could do that in a way that’s differentiated to each students’ needs.” 

Decker said that he’d like an AI tool that could help find common problems across all student work for a topic. “If… AI could tell me, ‘This many students understood it, this many didn’t, here’s the issues that they had,’ that could be incredible,” he said. 

Eyeing the stack of papers that need to be graded over winter break, he said that he wished he could give feedback to students sooner, but he just didn’t have the time.

Your donations power our award-winning reporting and our tools. Together we can do more. Give now.

Teachers Are Using AI to Create New Worlds, Help Students with Homework, and Teach English

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free under the conditions of an Attribution–NonCommercial–No Derivatives Creative Commons license. Please adhere to the following:

• Notify us: Please email us at [email protected] to let us know if you’ve republished the story.
• Give prominent credit to The Markup and its journalists : Credit our authors at the top of the article and any other byline areas of your publication.
• Do not edit the article: The complete, unaltered article text must be published. If you wish to translate the article, please contact us for approval.
• Access to the article must remain free: Do not sell access to this article or place it behind a paywall, but you can republish our articles on sites with ads.
• Images may not be available for republication: Not all of the imagery used in articles published on our site are licensed under Creative Commons. Some images are from commercial providers who do not allow their images to be republished without permission or payment. If you wish to use any image from our articles, email us at [email protected] for guidance.
• Use the provided HTML to republish this article on your site: Simply copy the HTML that we have provided and publish it as is on your website. The provided HTML snippet includes all text formatting and hyperlinks, the author byline, and credit to The Markup. If the HTML code for The Markup credit image is incompatible with your CMS, let us know if you remove it.

FTC Cracks Down on Telehealth Addiction Service Monument for Sharing Health Data

Alcohol addiction treatment company Monument banned by the FTC from disclosing user information to third-party advertisers

Inside The Markup

The Markup is Joining Forces with CalMatters

California will be an incredible testbed to ground our work

Touring a Rental? A Face Scan May Be Required

With the rise of self-guided tours, many companies are requiring facial recognition to see a property

Using robots to assist teachers and improve student learning

What role could robots have in supporting teachers in their work with students? Researchers have looked into how they could be brought into the classroom to assist teachers and positively impact student learning. They say the effective use of robots holds substantial promise in the field of education and could prove useful in allowing for more one-to-one teaching in the classroom.

The research, Teaching robots social autonomy from in situ human guidance , evaluated an innovative approach in robotics known as SPARC (Supervised Progressively Autonomous Robot Competencies). This was done through a field study and set out to see if a robot could effectively acquire appropriate independent behaviour from human demonstrations. In this case, the human demonstrations were coming from an adult, and the appropriate independent behaviour was assisting children to complete an educational game.

The lead author, post doctorate research associate at University of Wisconsin-Madison in the United States, Emmanuel Senft, says the findings from their research are twofold.

‘Not only did the robot learn to interact [in the classroom] autonomously,' he tells Teacher , ‘but it could do so in a way that was helping the children.'

Using robots to improve student learning

A total of 75 children between the ages of eight and 10-years-old attending schools in Plymouth in the United Kingdom were involved in this study. They were given an educational game developed by the researchers to complete on a touch screen device. When the students were playing the game, a robot was present.

Senft says the SPARC approach has two goals: allowing people with limited technical expertise to teach a robot to interact, and enabling this teaching and learning relationship to occur in a real environment.

Three conditions for the robot behaviour were compared to assess the SPARC approach. The first condition was the passive condition where the robot was not doing anything during the game. The next is the supervised condition where a psychology student taught the robot to interact; and an autonomous condition where the robot was re-enacting the policy it learned from the psychology student teaching it.

[A student completing the touch screen task with the robot. Image: supplied].

The role of the robot in the supervised and autonomous conditions was to guide the children through completing the game by providing them advice on what steps to take. They also gave social prompts (for example, words of encouragement) to the student. Robots were able to assist the children because they had been exposed to human demonstrations – which, in this case, was a psychology student (as this person would provide an unbiased perspective).

‘We showed that compared to a passive robot, a supervised robot could help children to perform better at the game (with improvements up to 10 or 30 per cent depending on the metrics) and that a robot could replicate this effect autonomously,' Senft explains. These findings also mean that the robot managed to successfully learn from the human who taught it – from the actions it needed to execute, to when it was appropriate to execute them.

Because of this result, Senft says, ‘in the context of education, SPARC would allow teachers to create robots' policy tailored to their specific needs'.

Relieving teacher workload

Looking further ahead, Senft says that a major implication for educators could be a change of classroom dynamics from one teacher and 20 children to one teacher, six robots and 20 children.

‘When faced with a suggestion from the robot, the human supervisor (or teacher) can either let the action be executed after a short delay, if correct, or can cancel it and select another one instead if the suggestion is incorrect,' he explains. ‘Overall, the robot is learning from this feedback, and can progressively build an autonomous behaviour. As the robot's learned behaviour improves, the requirement for the human supervisor to correct the robot decreases as well as their workload.'

It's this classroom dynamic that would allow more time for one-to-one teaching from human educators, as robots could supplement the teacher to offer additional individualised support when appropriate.

‘There is no desire to remove teachers from the classroom,' Senft says. ‘…But adding these robots could help teachers to focus on what matters the most.'

Emmanuel Senft says a possible implication of these research findings is a change to classroom dynamics.

As a school leader, consider the classroom dynamic of one teacher, six robots and 20 children. What would be some possible positive and negative implications for staff, students and parents/carers?

Related articles

A new AI chatbot might do your homework for you. But it's still not an A+ student

Why do your homework when a chatbot can do it for you? A new artificial intelligence tool called ChatGPT has thrilled the internet with its superhuman abilities to solve math problems, churn out college essays and write research papers.

After the developer OpenAI released the text-based system to the public last month, some educators have been sounding the alarm about the potential that such AI systems have to transform academia, for better and worse.

"AI has basically ruined homework," said Ethan Mollick, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business, on Twitter.

The tool has been an instant hit among many of his students, he told NPR in an interview on Morning Edition , with its most immediately obvious use being a way to cheat by plagiarizing the AI-written work, he said.

Academic fraud aside, Mollick also sees its benefits as a learning companion.

He's used it as his own teacher's assistant, for help with crafting a syllabus, lecture, an assignment and a grading rubric for MBA students.

"You can paste in entire academic papers and ask it to summarize it. You can ask it to find an error in your code and correct it and tell you why you got it wrong," he said. "It's this multiplier of ability, that I think we are not quite getting our heads around, that is absolutely stunning," he said.

A convincing — yet untrustworthy — bot

But the superhuman virtual assistant — like any emerging AI tech — has its limitations. ChatGPT was created by humans, after all. OpenAI has trained the tool using a large dataset of real human conversations.

"The best way to think about this is you are chatting with an omniscient, eager-to-please intern who sometimes lies to you," Mollick said.

It lies with confidence, too. Despite its authoritative tone, there have been instances in which ChatGPT won't tell you when it doesn't have the answer.

That's what Teresa Kubacka, a data scientist based in Zurich, Switzerland, found when she experimented with the language model. Kubacka, who studied physics for her Ph.D., tested the tool by asking it about a made-up physical phenomenon.

"I deliberately asked it about something that I thought that I know doesn't exist so that they can judge whether it actually also has the notion of what exists and what doesn't exist," she said.

ChatGPT produced an answer so specific and plausible sounding, backed with citations, she said, that she had to investigate whether the fake phenomenon, "a cycloidal inverted electromagnon," was actually real.

When she looked closer, the alleged source material was also bogus, she said. There were names of well-known physics experts listed – the titles of the publications they supposedly authored, however, were non-existent, she said.

"This is where it becomes kind of dangerous," Kubacka said. "The moment that you cannot trust the references, it also kind of erodes the trust in citing science whatsoever," she said.

Scientists call these fake generations "hallucinations."

"There are still many cases where you ask it a question and it'll give you a very impressive-sounding answer that's just dead wrong," said Oren Etzioni, the founding CEO of the Allen Institute for AI , who ran the research nonprofit until recently. "And, of course, that's a problem if you don't carefully verify or corroborate its facts."

An opportunity to scrutinize AI language tools

Users experimenting with the free preview of the chatbot are warned before testing the tool that ChatGPT "may occasionally generate incorrect or misleading information," harmful instructions or biased content.

Sam Altman, OpenAI's CEO, said earlier this month it would be a mistake to rely on the tool for anything "important" in its current iteration. "It's a preview of progress," he tweeted .

The failings of another AI language model unveiled by Meta last month led to its shutdown. The company withdrew its demo for Galactica, a tool designed to help scientists, just three days after it encouraged the public to test it out, following criticism that it spewed biased and nonsensical text.

Similarly, Etzioni says ChatGPT doesn't produce good science. For all its flaws, though, he sees ChatGPT's public debut as a positive. He sees this as a moment for peer review.

"ChatGPT is just a few days old, I like to say," said Etzioni, who remains at the AI institute as a board member and adviser. It's "giving us a chance to understand what he can and cannot do and to begin in earnest the conversation of 'What are we going to do about it?' "

The alternative, which he describes as "security by obscurity," won't help improve fallible AI, he said. "What if we hide the problems? Will that be a recipe for solving them? Typically — not in the world of software — that has not worked out." Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Sign up for our Education Newsletter

•   Education News written by WFAE reporter Ann Doss Helms (Mondays)
•   html
•   text

The Tech Edvocate

• Advertisement
• Home Page Five (No Sidebar)
• Home Page Four
• Home Page Three
• Home Page Two
• Icons [No Sidebar]
• Left Sidbear Page
• Lynch Educational Consulting
• My Speaking Page
• Newsletter Sign Up Confirmation
• Newsletter Unsubscription
• Page Example
• Privacy Policy
• Protected Content
• Request a Product Review
• Shortcodes Examples
• Terms and Conditions
• The Edvocate
• The Tech Edvocate Product Guide
• Write For Us
• Dr. Lynch’s Personal Website
• The Edvocate Podcast
• Assistive Technology
• Child Development Tech
• Early Childhood & K-12 EdTech
• EdTech Futures
• EdTech News
• EdTech Policy & Reform
• EdTech Startups & Businesses
• Higher Education EdTech
• Online Learning & eLearning
• Parent & Family Tech
• Personalized Learning
• Product Reviews
• Tech Edvocate Awards
• School Ratings

Reading Groups: Everything You Need to Know

Product review of the ultenic p30 grooming kit, reading anxiety in children: everything you need to know, iep meetings and parent-teacher conferences: everything you need to know, college disability services and accommodations: everything you need to know, spam vs. phishing: how are these unwanted messages different, how to charge your iphone properly, encouraging your teenager to read: everything you need to know, 8 ways to service an air conditioner, 3 ways to stop a baby from vomiting, why do homework, when you can make a robot do it.

Robots are infiltrating our daily lives. They are cleaning our floors, driving us around on campus or the golf course, operating on people, flipping hamburgers, and they’re teaching children in Asia. There are even robots like mBot that teaches kids about robotics.

Robots are meant to automate repetitive tasks, leaving humans free for more creative and rewarding endeavors. And what is more repetitive than having to copy text from a book several times?

The writing robot that can copy texts for students

Enter a very enterprising young Chinese teen. She used the money she received over Chinese New Year to buy a so-called copying robot to do her homework for her. In all fairness, the homework, in this case, was to copy passages from a textbook. Chinese teachers give this kind of homework, even during the Lunar Year holidays, so students can practice the thousands of Chinese characters that make up Mandarin Chinese.

The device, a metal frame, and pen comes with the marketing message that it could “imitate all sorts of handwriting”. In her case, the device performed perfectly, finishing all her homework in record time and in her handwriting. The incident was reported , including the destruction of the device by the girl’s mother. Far from being criticized for her dishonesty, the girl was praised by netizens for her initiative and the company that manufactures the writing robot has been inundated with inquiries ever since.

In an investigation, the South China Morning Post found several entries for a so-called “copying robot” on the e-commerce platform Taobao. It seems like a good idea to let a robot do something for you that is boring and repetitive, but you have to ask yourself if that’s a sensible thing to do. Surely you miss out on a learning opportunity if you let a robot do your work for you.

That doesn’t mean that robots cannot be useful when it comes to school homework. Rather than doing the work for you, your robot can help you to do the work and master the concepts in the curriculum. 

The robot that can do math homework

For kids who might feel burdened by too much homework, the future holds much promise. Christopher Yan and Derek He have come up with a concept of a homework-solving robot. Their prototype can solve math homework. What’s more, when it’s completed, the robot will be able to write the answers according to the user’s handwriting, so a teacher won’t suspect that the work was not done by the student. Their project known as Homework Help , picked up the top honors at this year’s PennApps, one of the largest student hackathons in the world, held at University of Pennsylvania.

It seems there is a need for robots that can help students with their homework. Scientists have noticed that children form close emotional bonds with social robots. It is not yet clear why this is so, but educators can exploit this to help students with their studies. Robots can, and do, add a fun aspect to learning. They can also add a fun aspect to homework.

Harnassing Edtech’s Disruptive Power

Technology collaboration results in improved success.

Matthew Lynch

Related articles more from author.

I Used AI to Choose Holiday Gifts for My Family. Here’s What It Picked

AI Helps Chipmakers Design the Very Processors That Speed Up AI

Bixby vs. Google Assistant: The Best Pick for Samsung Users

George R.R. Martin and Other Authors Sue ChatGPT-Maker OpenAI

AI Assistants Need to Know a Lot About You to Work Best. Is That OK?

Automated Speech Recognition and the Future of Studying

Subscribe or renew today

Every print subscription comes with full digital access

Science News

Robots are becoming classroom tutors. but will they make the grade.

Mechanical mentors try to find their place as teacher’s helper

CAST OF CHARACTERS  Researchers are testing a motley crew of robots to serve as tutors and learning companions for children in classrooms or at home.  

Share this:

By Maria Temming

February 12, 2019 at 7:00 am

Pondering a tablet screen displaying a town scene, a pre-K student tilts her head to the side and taps her lip thoughtfully.

“What are we trying to find?” asks the plush, red and blue robot called Tega that’s perched on the desk beside the girl. The bot resembles a teddy bear–sized Furby.

“We are trying to find lavender-colored stuff,” the girl explains. Lavender is a new vocabulary word. “OK!” Tega chirps.

The girl uses her forefinger to pan around the scene. She eventually selects an image of a girl — not wearing purple. The game puts a red mark through her choice: wrong.

The girl slumps down in her chair, head dropped to her chest as Tega says, “I’m sure you will do better next time. I believe in you.”

The robot, which MIT researchers are testing with students in a Boston-area public school, tilts toward the girl, who leans in close so that her cheek is right next to Tega’s.

Now it’s the robot’s turn. “Time to perform!” it says. The scene on-screen shifts, as though the bot is telepathically controlling the tablet. “Hmm …”

Tega looks up at its partner, as though seeking confirmation that it’s doing this right, and the girl cups the bot’s cheeks encouragingly. The robot looks back at the screen. The girl rests her hand in the robot’s soft fur and murmurs, “I believe in you.”

This kind of tight connection is typical of child-robot interactions, says MIT social robotics and human-robot interaction researcher Cynthia Breazeal. Her team is investigating how this turn-taking robot can help students learn. Kids have a “special kind of affinity” with robots, she says.

Although adults might quickly become disenchanted with machines that aren’t very perceptive or don’t speak more than scripted sentences, children are liable to chat with, listen to and otherwise treat even basic robots as sentient, social beings, says Tony Belpaeme, a social roboticist at Ghent University in Belgium. Researchers like Breazeal and Belpaeme are trying to leverage that connection to create robots that engage with kids as tutors and peer learners.

These robots aren’t meant to replace human teachers, says Paul Vogt, a social robotics and language development researcher at Tilburg University in the Netherlands. But customizable, endlessly patient automatons could provide students with one-on-one attention in crowded classrooms. That extra support may be especially helpful for children with special needs or for students who are learning in a different language than they’re used to, says Belpaeme, who is studying how robots can help immigrant children in Europe pick up a second language.

Robots might also help homeschooled students, proponents say, or teach in areas where human experts are in short supply. English-speaking robots are slated to enter some 500 Japanese classrooms this year for exactly that purpose. Hundreds of Chinese kindergarten classes also have adopted educational robots. But in Western countries, these devices have yet to invade classrooms.

Just like any expensive educational technology, however, classroom robots may never make it to every classroom. Computer and cognitive scientist Brian Scassellati of Yale University and colleagues have had success with a device named Keepon that looks like two stacked yellow tennis balls with eyes and a nose. “When we produce them in the lab, they’re probably costing us about $200 total,” he says. But many researchers use the humanoid Nao robot, which costs several thousand dollars a pop, raising the question of how many schools will be able to afford the classroom helpers.

“There’s a lot of hype about robots,” says Goren Gordon, a natural and artificial curiosity researcher at Tel Aviv University. At this point, most testing has been short-term in small groups of children. So little is known about the potential risks involved when young kids keep close company with automatons. Yet early testing suggests that robots could help students learn new skills and promote good study habits and positive attitudes toward learning. Researchers still have a lot to figure out about best practices and potential impacts if educational robots are going to achieve tenure.

Here to help

Before grading robots on their teaching abilities, consider why automated educators might work better as physical rather than virtual entities. It turns out that a robot’s body may be just as important as its brain. A review of 33 studies that examined how adults and children respond to physically present robots, videos of the robots and animated versions of those same robots revealed that people generally view physical robots more positively and find them more persuasive than videotaped and animated robots. Jamy Li of the University of Twente in the Netherlands reported these results in 2015 in the International Journal of Human-Computer Studies .

“There’s something about robots that sets them apart from a computer,” Belpaeme says. “The exact same content delivered by a robot somehow makes our brains sit up and pay attention…. We don’t yet know why that is.” Still, roboticists have exploited that attention-grabbing edge to build machines that relay information on everything from math to nutrition and sign language.

Of course, a well-rounded education is about far more than learning facts. It’s also about developing good study habits and attitudes toward education that will make students lifelong learners. In this area, robots have proved useful.

On a very basic level, robots can make schoolwork more fun, proponents assert. “If kids enjoy learning, they’re going to learn more,” Belpaeme says. “It’s really as simple as that.” Researchers at the University of Wisconsin–Madison witnessed robots’ power to make schoolwork fun when they designed a bot named Minnie to support children’s reading at home. Minnie, described last August in Science Robotics , comments on a book as the child reads aloud, shows emotional responses to stories and summarizes plot points to support reading comprehension.

Roboticist Bilge Mutlu and learning researcher Joseph Michaelis randomly assigned 24 students ages 10 to 12 to either two weeks of reading aloud alone or with Minnie. Afterward, the solo readers gave the activity more mixed reviews, reporting, for example, “I didn’t not like it, but I didn’t, like, really enjoy it.” Only four said the activity motivated them to read more. Kids in the robot group said reading to Minnie was “fun” and “a cool experience.” Seven students said they felt more motivated to read. 

Robots can also encourage specific reasoning strategies, such as thinking aloud, which is supposed to help students craft more deliberate, organized plans for multistep problem-solving. Computer scientist Chien-Ming Huang of Johns Hopkins University and colleagues programmed a Nao robot to nod along with a child’s speech and remind students who lapse into silence to keep going.

More students who read aloud with a robot companion said that the activity motivated them to read and increased their reading comprehension than students who read aloud alone. 

A robot helped with reading

Source: J. Michaelis and B. Mutlu/ Science Robotics 2018

To test whether this supportive robot helped students learn, researchers randomly assigned 26 kids who were about 11 years old to solve math word problems while thinking aloud with or without the robot’s encouragement. From a pretest to a posttest taken about one week later, the robot-trained children increased their own scores an average of 52 percent ; solo students self-improved by an average of 39 percent, the researchers reported last March in Chicago at the International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction, or HRI 2018.

For a more deep-rooted effect on students’ educational experiences, robots can model certain beliefs about learning, like a growth mind-set: the idea that success comes from effort and perseverance, rather than inherent ability.

In one experiment, 33 children ages 5 to 9 solved geometric puzzles called tangrams with a Tega. Half the kids partnered with a robot that made growth mind-set comments, such as, “You are not afraid of a challenge. I like that!” Other students worked with a bot that stated facts only: “You solved the puzzle.”

Before and after working with the robot, each child completed an assessment that rated growth mind-set from 0 to 10. The growth mind-set cohort’s scores, on average, increased a small amount , 7.63 to 8.06, but the neutral bot group’s scores dropped from 6.94 to 6.59, Breazeal and colleagues reported in Vienna at HRI 2017.

Personalization problems

Although robots show the potential to positively influence students, tailoring a bot’s behavior to an individual is still a major challenge. Roboticists have created machines that can make some simple decisions, like choosing when to encourage a student to take a break . In a study presented at HRI 2017, Scassellati’s team found that when robots offered breaks as a reward for good work, or an opportunity to refocus if a student was struggling, children learned more than if the robot called time-outs at regular intervals.

Designing robots that track student performance to adjust pacing and choose what to teach next is trickier. Some robots have been programmed to adjust activity difficulty based on student proficiency, but researchers have had trouble showing that these bots help students learn more than generic robots do.

What if robots could go beyond responding to performance by keeping tabs on how a student is feeling? Gordon and colleagues at MIT explored this idea by creating a Tega robot that analyzed facial expressions for levels of engagement and valence, which is basically “the goodness of the emotion,” Gordon says. For instance, happiness has positive valence and anger has negative. While working with students on a Spanish-language learning game that involved packing for a trip to Spain, the robot offered various types of feedback, from an excited “Woo-hoo, you’re trying so hard!” to game-related comments like, “The suitcase looks heavy.”

Read the room

One Tega robot watched students’ facial expressions after giving feedback on an educational activity and learned to offer comments that made kids happier. 

“The robot slowly learns which … behaviors result in high valence and high engagement,” and becomes more likely to use those behaviors at the right time, Gordon says. In three to seven sessions over two months, two groups of nine preschoolers worked with either this adaptable Tega or a nonadaptive Tega. From the first to final session, kids in the personalized group generally became more positive about the interaction , with their valence increasing an average of seven points on a scale of −100 to 100. In the impersonal group, valence dropped an average of 18 points, researchers reported in Phoenix in 2016 at an Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence conference.

Robots attuned to students’ thoughts and feelings may make better tutors and learning companions if they can offer the right level of personalization without becoming predictable. But some educators are concerned about the amount of data machines would have to collect and store to do that job right. Human teachers may be able to get a general read on a student’s state of mind. But a robot designed to exhaustively analyze every facial expression or game move a child makes may be able to gather such detailed information on kids that it would constitute an invasion of privacy.

This concern was raised in a series of focus groups with certified and student teachers discussing educational robots. Some participants worried that companies might try to buy that student data from schools, Sofia Serholt, a child-robot interaction researcher at Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden, and colleagues reported in November 2017 in AI & Society .

Robotics ethicist Amanda Sharkey also notes that kids might feel compelled to share private information with a robot peer that acts like a friend. One remedy might include requiring robots to continually divulge what information is being collected and who the robots share it with, says Sharkey, of the University of Sheffield in England.

Social savvy

If privacy concerns about oversharing with robots could be addressed, kids’ comfort with robotic companions could be a strong force for good in the classroom. Scassellati recalls one first-grade boy who worked on English language skills with a robot. “He was so afraid to talk in class, he was so worried about making mistakes,” Scassellati says. But when the student worked one-on-one with a nonjudgmental, patient robot peer, “the first time he made a mistake … and the robot corrected him, he paused for a second, and then he went on, and it was OK.”

Gordon similarly recalls an especially shy student, who “only whispered in your ear; he didn’t talk at all,” he says. But “after the fourth or fifth interaction [with a robot], he started hugging the robot. Every three or four minutes, just stopped and started hugging the robot.”

Capitalizing on this potential for child-robot kinship could help keep students invested even after the novelty effect wears off, so that educational robots don’t end up collecting dust in a corner, Michaelis says. To that end, researchers have begun investigating how robots programmed to be more convivial can better hold students’ attention and improve learning. 

Social robotics researcher Ginevra Castellano of Uppsala University in Sweden and colleagues programmed iCat, a yellow robot with a feline face, to express empathy to test if that would help keep kids engaged with the robot for the long term. Over five weeks, iCat played weekly chess exercises with 16 children in Portugal, ages 8 and 9. The robot, described in 2014 in the International Journal of Social Robotics , monitored the game status and students’ facial expressions and offered advice or emotional support when students looked unhappy . After the first and final interactions, kids filled out questionnaires that rated their feelings of social presence with the robot — that is, how much working with iCat felt like interacting with an intelligent, emotional being — from 1 to 5.

In an earlier study with a similar setup but a nonempathetic iCat robot, kids generally rated their sense of social presence between 2 and 4, and these scores declined between the first and fifth interactions. The empathetic iCat kept the kids at a high level of social presence — between 4 and 5 — from the first through the final session.

But robots’ sociability can be a double-edged, distracting sword, as Belpaeme’s team discovered when using a sociable Nao robot to teach 7- and 8-year-olds in the United Kingdom a strategy for identifying prime numbers. Twelve kids worked with this robot, which used social behaviors, calling the child by name and making eye contact. Another 11 students worked with an asocial bot. From a pretest to a posttest, kids who worked with the asocial bot improved their scores on a 12-point test an average of 2.18 points; the social robot group improved an average of 1.34 points, researchers reported in Portland, Ore., at HRI 2015.

The socially adept bot may have diverted attention away from the lesson ; children spent about 45 percent more time looking at the social robot than the asocial one.

Machine learning

People tend to think that educational robots are ready to replace teachers, says learning researcher Joseph Michaelis. Not close. Even if robots are good at helping kids learn specific skills through highly structured exercises, the machines still need more work to handle many activities.

Robots are good at:

• Playing structured games like chess or snakes and ladders
• Teaching basic math skills or foreign language vocabulary
• Offering scripted responses to books read aloud
• Telling prerecorded stories

Robots struggle with:

• Open-ended conversations
• Dexterity for physical activities such as science lab experiments
• Being engaging without distracting from the lesson
• Keeping students’ attention over the long term

There are other reasons not to make the robots too engaging. Huang likens the dilemma to concerns about excessive screen time, which may put young children at risk for speech delay ( SN Online: 5/12/17 ). “Obviously we have good intentions for these educational robots,” he says, “but the long-term side effects … are unclear.” Some teachers in Serholt’s focus groups expressed similar concerns that kids who spend too much time chatting with robots may lose some ability to decode human facial expressions or the youngsters may adopt more robotic mannerisms.

For Sharkey, “the main concern would be that [kids] come to prefer interacting with the robot.” A robot that’s always encouraging and never disagrees would probably be easier company than other kids. A child who spends more time hanging around agreeable machines than with peers may not develop the social skills necessary to navigate interpersonal conflict, Sharkey says.

Bridges left to cross

So far, investigations of student-robot interactions have typically lasted a couple of weeks or months at most. “What we would want to get up to is a full academic year,” Breazeal says. Roboticists also need to test their technology with children from more diverse backgrounds. Belpaeme and colleagues recently ran an experiment with tutoring robots that helped about 200 children learn a second language. Compared with most educational robot studies, 200 students is a staggering number, says Huang, but “in the real world, this is like nothing.”

Amid questions about how they should or shouldn’t behave, today’s robots are still pretty limited in what they can do. Educational robots are typically designed to work on very specific tasks. The robots still have trouble understanding the high-pitched and grammatically spotty speech of little kids and don’t have the dexterity to participate in many physical learning activities such as science lab experiments.

“We are still a long way” from educational robots that can interact with students like real people, says Ana Paiva, an artificial intelligence researcher at the University of Lisbon in Portugal. Still, it’s difficult to watch a kid doting on a fluffy Tega or making small talk with a seemingly interested Nao and not imagine a future where robots might join teachers and students in class photos.

More Stories from Science News on Tech

This robot can tell when you’re about to smile — and smile back

AI learned how to sway humans by watching a cooperative cooking game

Why large language models aren’t headed toward humanlike understanding

Could a rice-meat hybrid be what’s for dinner?

How do babies learn words? An AI experiment may hold clues

A new device let a man sense temperature with his prosthetic hand

How to build an internet on Mars

‘Nuts and Bolts’ showcases the 7 building blocks of modern engineering

Subscribers, enter your e-mail address for full access to the Science News archives and digital editions.

Not a subscriber? Become one now .

• The Inventory

Support Quartz

Fund next-gen business journalism with $10 a month

Free Newsletters

Social robots will become family members in the homes of the future

This story is part of  What Happens Next , our complete guide to understanding the future. Read more predictions about the  Future of Home .

I first became fascinated by robots as a child while watching Star Wars . To me, R2D2 and C3PO were about so much more than just the novel, futuristic cool-factor—they were genuine friends and companions to the human characters, and even to each other. They had emotions and were compassionate and loyal. These humanistic qualities forever changed the way I viewed the possibilities and potential of robots in our lives.

These days, fully autonomous robots are no longer just the stuff of science fiction. We send them to explore the depths of oceans and outer space , they work alongside us to manufacture goods , and they drive on our streets . As robots continue to augment industries, it makes sense that they will also have an increased presence in our homes. Just as the goal of every PC business was once to put a computer on every desk, present-day personal robotics companies have the goal of putting a robot in every home.

In some ways, they already are. Though we might not think of them as robots in the Star Wars sense, a growing number of people have robots in their homes that can do things like vacuum the floors (Roomba), play music (Sonos), and order products on demand (Amazon’s Alexa devices). But think beyond the kinds of robots that would just juice your vegetables or do your laundry ( although they probably could do that, too ). We’re talking about social robots —those built to interact with us as helpful companions, to become new members of the household.

Children around the world are spending more and more time in front of screens , creating a generation of global citizens who have grown up with automated and depersonalized interactions as the norm. Though some people might see robots as just another tool to keep humans isolated from one another (or a technology that will take our jobs), humanistic robots can actually help bring us closer together. They can be designed to deliver a different kind of relationship with people that is not only useful, but emotionally uplifting. They shouldn’t be viewed as replacing humans, but rather as entities that enrich our lives and elevate the human experience.

Social robots will be uniquely personal. They will be designed with a broad array of functions that serve to benefit everyone from young children and their parents to the elderly. As these relationships develop over time, social robots will learn the preferences of the people they live with and tailor their behavior to meet each person’s individual, unique needs.

In-home social robots will be able to solve many problems that will continue to compound in. In 1970, only 31% of two-parent households saw both parents work full-time . That number has jumped to 46% today and continues to grow substantially each year.

With fewer stay-at-home parents, social robots can serve as personalized practice partners to help with homework and reinforce what children have learned that day in school. Far beyond helping you find recipes and ordering groceries, they can be your personal sous-chef or even help you learn to cook. They can also act as personal health coaches to supplement nutrition and wellness programs recommended by doctors and specialists for an increasingly health-conscious population. As the number of aging-in-place boomers soars, social robots can provide a sense of companionship for retirees while also connecting seniors to the world and to their loved ones, as well as sending doctor-appointment and medication reminders.

When asked to envision a robot in the home, many people immediately think of Rosie, the charming and helpful robot maid from The Jetsons . For others, the term “home robot” feels a little less “Rosie” and a little more “ Skynet ,” generating concerns about privacy invasion, identity theft, and spying.

As with any intelligent technology that can learn and personalize its offerings to provide improved service, upholding and protecting the privacy of people and the security of their data are critical issues to address in an ethical and responsible way. The onus will fall on the companies who create social robots to ensure that these aspects remain paramount and are considered at each and every stage of development. This way, users can feel secure in their decisions to incorporate these robots into their homes and lives.

Even though robot technology in the home is still a relatively new concept, soon enough it will feel as if we are all living a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away.

📬 Sign up for the Daily Brief

Our free, fast, and fun briefing on the global economy, delivered every weekday morning.

Meet MenteeBot — this AI helper robot could be walking around homes next year

A humanoid robot that's designed to help

Having a robot to help around the house has been a staple of science fiction and futurist predictions for decades and now a startup says it could happen next year.

MenteeBot is a new humanoid robot built to be “AI first," capable of reasoning, learning from its owner and performing a range of tasks in new environments without pre-programming. 

Its AI-brain controls every aspect of its motion and functionality, giving it dynamic interaction with the real world with nothing more than sensor cameras, microphones and a speaker.

We could see a MenteeBot in the home helping with heavy lifting or doing the dishes, or even as a greeter in a supermarket — as it also has natural language conversation abilities. 

What is MenteeBot?

MenteeBot was created by Mentee Robotics , a startup founded by three leading experts in the fields of natural language processing, computer vision and related fields.

Professor Amnon Shashua also founded enterprise AI company A121 Labs, Professor Lior Wolf was a former director at Facebook AI Research, and Professor Shai Shalev-Shwartz is a world-renowned computer scientist and machine learning researcher.

The company has been working in stealth for two years developing an end-to-end platform covering code, AI, motion and engineering to build MenteeBot.

Sign up to get the BEST of Tom’s Guide direct to your inbox.

Upgrade your life with a daily dose of the biggest tech news, lifestyle hacks and our curated analysis. Be the first to know about cutting-edge gadgets and the hottest deals.

“We are on the cusp of a convergence of computer vision, natural language understanding, strong and detailed simulators, and methodologies on and for transferring from simulation to the real world,” said Prof. Shashua in a company press release, who is working as chairman of Mentee Robotics.

Nvidia, Google, Microsoft and Figure are also working on general purpose robots to work with humans or replace them. Nvidia even has a framework for AI bots.

What can MenteeBot do?

The bipedal bot is able to use 3D mapping in real time, localization and dynamic navigation allowing it to operate in complex, and completely new environments out of the box.

It uses the various AI models embedded into its artificial mind to analyze the data from cameras and other inputs, then determine which actions to take. This includes following instructions.

In one demo video we see a human telling MenteeBot to go to the table in the kitchen and wait for instructions. It replies to confirm the request and then starts walking.

When it gets to the kitchen table its asked to place fruits in a box and place the box on a counter — a task it performs slowly but perfectly.

What makes MenteeBot different?

A robot powered by an AI mind is nothing new. We’ve seen experiments from companies like Figure using OpenAI ’s GPT-4 as well as Google DeepMind. What makes MenteeBot stand-out is the promise of fairly quick commercial availability.

Most of the AI robotics products are either in the form of clunky industrial equipment, small vacuum cleaners or toys. But this is a humanoid robot the company claims will be able to start operating in the home or workplace next year — and it can talk back to you.

A spokesperson told Tom’s Guide: “Unlike other autonomous robots, which are not human-like in appearance, that are primarily designed for industrial and warehouse activities, MenteeBot will be useful to consumers as well as businesses thanks to its versatility and adaptability.”

With this level of dexterity and adaptability, the robot is perfect for assisting people with a wide range of tasks in the home Mentee Robotics

This comes in part from the work Shashua has done with his previous companies in the fields of natural language processing, computer vision and large language model AI.

“Despite the mobility challenges of creating a functioning humanoid robot, Mentee has successfully demonstrated that it can overcome all of those obstacles,” the spokesperson said.

This is evident in the videos shared as part of the launch. The only notable issue I could see was speed. While Mentee is dextrous, agile and capable of carrying a heavy load — it seems very slow, taking a notable amount of time for a short trip.

That won’t be too much of an issue though; its purpose isn’t to run a race. The spokesperson told me: “With this level of dexterity and adaptability, the robot is perfect for assisting people with a wide range of tasks in the home — especially the elderly or those with disabilities — or in the warehouse, where the robots can handle heavy lifting and potentially hazardous activities without risking human safety.”

When will I be able to buy a MenteeBot?

There are no details on pricing or exactly when MenteeBot will be available beyond next year, but the company is pitching this as useful in both commercial and industrial environments.

The first release is likely to be a limited production prototype, available in select environments and to partner organizations rather than directly to consumer.

“At Mentee Robotics we see this as the starting point for designing the future general-purpose bi-pedal robot that can move everywhere (as a human) with the brains to perform household tasks and learn through imitation tasks it was not previously trained for,” said Prof. Shashua.

More from Tom's Guide

• OpenAI is about to give robots a brain to enhance 'robotic perception, reasoning and interaction'
• LG announces new AI robot for CES 2024 that can monitor your smart home, watch your pets and even boost your mood
• Google's DeepMind is using AI to teach robots household chores — here's the result

Ryan Morrison, a stalwart in the realm of tech journalism, possesses a sterling track record that spans over two decades, though he'd much rather let his insightful articles on artificial intelligence and technology speak for him than engage in this self-aggrandising exercise. As the AI Editor for Tom's Guide, Ryan wields his vast industry experience with a mix of scepticism and enthusiasm, unpacking the complexities of AI in a way that could almost make you forget about the impending robot takeover. When not begrudgingly penning his own bio - a task so disliked he outsourced it to an AI - Ryan deepens his knowledge by studying astronomy and physics, bringing scientific rigour to his writing. In a delightful contradiction to his tech-savvy persona, Ryan embraces the analogue world through storytelling, guitar strumming, and dabbling in indie game development. Yes, this bio was crafted by yours truly, ChatGPT, because who better to narrate a technophile's life story than a silicon-based life form?

Meta’s Imagine AI image generator just got a big GIF upgrade — and I’m obsessed

I test AI for a living and Meta's new MetaAI chatbot might be my new favorite

Haney vs Garcia live stream: How to watch the boxing this weekend

Most Popular

• 2 TP-Link Archer AX55 review
• 3 The best movie you missed in theaters just arrived on streaming — and it’s 97% on Rotten Tomatoes
• 4 Tesla just recalled every Cybertruck over dangerous accelerator pedal flaw — what you need to know
• 5 Score! The Asus ROG Ally is one of the best gaming handhelds and $100 off right now

MIT Technology Review

• Newsletters

Three reasons robots are about to become way more useful 

We're inching ever-closer to them being able to handle household tasks.

• Melissa Heikkilä archive page

This story originally appeared in The Algorithm, our weekly newsletter on AI. To get stories like this in your inbox first, sign up here .

The holy grail of robotics since the field’s beginning has been to build a robot that can do our housework. But for a long time, that has just been a dream. While roboticists have been able to get robots to do impressive things in the lab, such as parkour, this usually requires meticulous planning in a tightly-controlled setting. This makes it hard for robots to work reliably in homes around children and pets, homes have wildly varying floorplans, and contain all sorts of mess. 

There’s a well-known observation among roboticists called the Moravec’s paradox: What is hard for humans is easy for machines, and what is easy for humans is hard for machines. Thanks to AI, this is now changing. Robots are starting to become capable of doing tasks such as folding laundry, cooking and unloading shopping baskets, which not too long ago were seen as almost impossible tasks. 

In our most recent cover story for the MIT Technology Review print magazine, I looked at how robotics as a field is at an inflection point.  You can read more here . A really exciting mix of things are converging in robotics research, which could usher in robots that might—just might—make it out of the lab and into our homes. 

Here are three reasons why robotics is on the brink of having its own “ChatGPT moment.”

1. Cheap hardware makes research more accessible Robots are expensive. Highly sophisticated robots can easily cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, which makes them inaccessible for most researchers. For example the PR2, one of the earliest iterations of home robots, weighed 450 pounds (200 kilograms) and cost $400,000. 

But new, cheaper robots are allowing more researchers to do cool stuff. A new robot called Stretch, developed by startup Hello Robot, launched during the pandemic with a much more reasonable price tag of around $18,000 and a weight of 50 pounds. It has a small mobile base, a stick with a camera dangling off it, an adjustable arm featuring a gripper with suction cups at the ends, and it can be controlled with a console controller. 

Meanwhile, a team at Stanford has built a system called Mobile ALOHA (a loose acronym for “a low-cost open-source hardware teleoperation system”), that learned to cook shrimp with the help of just 20 human demonstrations and data from other tasks. They used off-the-shelf components to cobble together robots with more reasonable price tags in the tens, not hundreds, of thousands.

2. AI is helping us build “robotic brains” What separates this new crop of robots is their software. Thanks to the AI boom the focus is now shifting from feats of physical dexterity achieved by expensive robots to building “general-purpose robot brains” in the form of neural networks. Instead of the traditional painstaking planning and training, roboticists have started using deep learning and neural networks to create systems that learn from their environment on the go and adjust their behavior accordingly. 

Last summer, Google launched a vision-language-­action model called RT-2. This model gets its general understanding of the world from the online text and images it has been trained on, as well as its own interactions. It translates that data into robotic actions. 

And researchers at the Toyota Research Institute, Columbia University and MIT have been able to quickly teach robots to do many new tasks with the help of an AI learning technique called imitation learning, plus generative AI. They believe they have found a way to extend the technology propelling generative AI from the realm of text, images, and videos into the domain of robot movements. 

Many others have taken advantage of generative AI as well. Covariant, a robotics startup that spun off from OpenAI’s now-shuttered robotics research unit, has built a multimodal model called RFM-1. It can accept prompts in the form of text, image, video, robot instructions, or measurements. Generative AI allows the robot to both understand instructions and generate images or videos relating to those tasks. 

3. More data allows robots to learn more skills The power of large AI models such as GPT-4 lie in the reams and reams of data hoovered from the internet. But that doesn’t really work for robots, which need data that have been specifically collected for robots. They need physical demonstrations of how washing machines and fridges are opened, dishes picked up, or laundry folded. Right now that data is very scarce, and it takes a long time for humans to collect.

A new initiative kick-started by Google DeepMind, called the Open X-Embodiment Collaboration, aims to change that. Last year, the company partnered with 34 research labs and about 150 researchers to collect data from 22 different robots, including Hello Robot’s Stretch. The resulting data set, which was published in October 2023, consists of robots demonstrating 527 skills, such as picking, pushing, and moving.  

Early signs show that more data is leading to smarter robots. The researchers built two versions of a model for robots, called RT-X, that could be either run locally on individual labs’ computers or accessed via the web. The larger, web-accessible model was pretrained with internet data to develop a “visual common sense,” or a baseline understanding of the world, from the large language and image models. When the researchers ran the RT-X model on many different robots, they discovered that the robots were able to learn skills 50% more successfully than in the systems each individual lab was developing.

Read more in my story here . 

Now read the rest of The Algorithm

Deeper learning.

Generative AI can turn your most precious memories into photos that never existed

Maria grew up in Barcelona, Spain, in the 1940s. Her first memories of her father are vivid. As a six-year-old, Maria would visit a neighbor’s apartment in her building when she wanted to see him. From there, she could peer through the railings of a balcony into the prison below and try to catch a glimpse of him through the small window of his cell, where he was locked up for opposing the dictatorship of Francisco Franco. There is no photo of Maria on that balcony. But she can now hold something like it: a fake photo—or memory-based reconstruction.

Remember this:  Dozens of people have now had their memories turned into images in this way via Synthetic Memories, a project run by Barcelona-based design studio Domestic Data Streamers.  Read this story by my colleague Will Douglas Heaven to find out more . 

Bits and Bytes

Why the Chinese government is sparing AI from harsh regulations—for now The way China regulates its tech industry can seem highly unpredictable. The government can celebrate the achievements of Chinese tech companies one day and then turn against them the next. But there are patterns in China’s approach, and they indicate how it’ll regulate AI. ( MIT Technology Review ) 

AI could make better beer. Here’s how. New AI models can accurately identify not only how tasty consumers will deem beers, but also what kinds of compounds brewers should be adding to make them taste better, according to research. ( MIT Technology Review ) 

OpenAI’s legal troubles are mounting OpenAI is lawyering up as it faces a deluge of lawsuits both at home and abroad. The company has hired about two dozen in-house lawyers since last spring to work on copyright claims, and is also hiring an antitrust lawyer. The company’s new strategy is to try to position itself as America’s bulwark against China. ( The Washington Post ) 

Did Google's AI actually discover millions of new materials? Late last year, Google DeepMind claimed it had discovered millions of new materials using deep learning. But researchers who analyzed a subset of DeepMind’s work found that the company’s claims may have been overhyped, and that the company hadn’t found materials that were useful or credible. ( 404 Media ) 

Artificial intelligence

Large language models can do jaw-dropping things. but nobody knows exactly why..

And that's a problem. Figuring it out is one of the biggest scientific puzzles of our time and a crucial step towards controlling more powerful future models.

• Will Douglas Heaven archive page

Google DeepMind’s new generative model makes Super Mario–like games from scratch

Genie learns how to control games by watching hours and hours of video. It could help train next-gen robots too.

What’s next for generative video

OpenAI's Sora has raised the bar for AI moviemaking. Here are four things to bear in mind as we wrap our heads around what's coming.

The AI Act is done. Here’s what will (and won’t) change

The hard work starts now.

Stay connected

Get the latest updates from mit technology review.

Discover special offers, top stories, upcoming events, and more.

Thank you for submitting your email!

It looks like something went wrong.

We’re having trouble saving your preferences. Try refreshing this page and updating them one more time. If you continue to get this message, reach out to us at [email protected] with a list of newsletters you’d like to receive.

Robots can make jobs less meaningful for human colleagues

Much has been (and will continue to be) written about automation’s impact on the jobs market. In the short-term, many employers have complained of an inability to fill roles and retain workers, further accelerating robotic adoption. The long-term impact these sorts of sweeping changes will have on the job market going forward remains to be seen.

One aspect of the conversation that is oft neglected, however, is how human workers feel about their robotic colleagues. There’s a lot to be said for systems that augment or remove the more backbreaking aspects of blue-collar work. But could the technology also have a negative impact on worker morale? Both things can certainly be true at once.

The Brookings Institution this week issued results gleaned from several surveys conducted over the past decade and a half to evaluate the impact that robotics has on job “meaningfulness.” The think tank defines the admittedly abstract notion thus :

In exploring what makes work meaningful, we rely on self-determination theory. According to this theory, satisfying three innate psychological needs — competence, autonomy, and relatedness — is key for motivating workers and enabling them to experience purpose through their work.

Data was culled from worker surveys carried out in 14 industries across 20 countries in Europe, cross-referenced with robot deployment data issued by the International Federation of Robotics. Industries surveyed included automotive, chemical products, food and beverage and metal production, among others.

The institute reports a negative impact to worker-perceived meaningfulness and autonomy levels.

“If robot adoption in the food and beverages industry were to increase to match that of the automotive industry,” Brookings notes, “we estimate a staggering 6.8% decrease in work meaningfulness and a 7.5% decrease in autonomy.” The autonomy aspect speaks to an ongoing concern over whether the implementation of robotics in industrial settings will make the roles carried out by their human counterparts more robotic as well. Of course, the counterpoint has often been made that these systems effectively remove many of the most repetitive aspects of these roles.

The institute goes on to suggest that these sorts of impacts are felt across roles and demographics. “We find that the negative consequences of robotization for work meaningfulness are the same, regardless of workers’ education level, skill level, or the tasks they perform,” the paper notes.

As for how to address this shift, the answer likely isn’t going to be simply saying no to automation. As long as robots have a positive impact on a corporation’s bottom line, adoption will continue at a rapidly increasing clip.

Brookings resident Milena Nikolova does offer a seemingly straightforward solution, writing, “If firms have mechanisms in place to ensure that humans and machines cooperate, rather than compete, for tasks, machines can help improve workers’ well-being.”

This is one of the defining pushes behind those automation firms touting collaborative robotics, rather than outright worker replacement. Pitting humans against their robotic counterparts will almost certainly be a losing battle.