In this session, I argue that educators should build custom, purpose-built AI tutors rather than rely exclusively on enterprise AI tools. I will discuss my own effort to build a transparent and responsible AI tutor for my Fall 2024
Ethics and Artificial Intelligence course (see
here and
here for articles that describe the project). I will present my views about how bounded, deterministic instructional logic can be used to constrain AI tutor behavior, such that these that these tutors enhance student reasoning rather than replace it. I will also describe my IRB-backed plans to rigorously assess the impact of this tutor on student learning outcomes in my Fall 2026 version 2.0 of the course.
For those interested in my earlier work on AI and education, including applications that allow students to have conversations with philosophers and play various types of educational games, I also invite you to view this video lecture:
https://youtu.be/yXJ0b2_6C6s?si=NfQcMSjJuwbEzvjl
