Sep 29, 2026 · 53 min · 17 segments
The Gates Foundation recently pledged $1 billion over two years for AI efforts, with a large share going to education. Why the big AI push, even as Bill Gates warns of the technology's possible…
Jeff YoungHost
As I put this episode together and reflected on the conversation, the biggest thing I keep coming back to is this comment Patrick made that AI tutors have not worked as well out of the box as experts had hoped.
In fact, one AI tutoring project that the Gates Foundation has been funding is an AI tutor by the nonprofit Khan Academy, and Sal Khan, who leads that group, recently said in interviews that these AI tutors just have not been as successful as he imagined.
There was a study that came out last month of some middle schools in Tennessee that found that, quote, "Students use the tutor infrequently, and when they did, rarely engaged it in substantive mathematical dialogue." But this podcast episode shows that that doesn't mean that Khan Academy or the Gates Foundation has given up on the idea of AI tutoring.
The promise is still that AI can solve social inequities by unlocking education as never before.
As I put this episode together and reflected on the conversation, the biggest thing I keep coming back to is this comment Patrick made that AI tutors have not worked as well out of the box as experts had hoped.
In fact, one AI tutoring project that the Gates Foundation has been funding is an AI tutor by the nonprofit Khan Academy, and Sal Khan, who leads that group, recently said in interviews that these AI tutors just have not been as successful as he imagined.
There was a study that came out last month of some middle schools in Tennessee that found that, quote, "Students use the tutor infrequently, and when they did, rarely engaged it in substantive mathematical dialogue." But this podcast episode shows that that doesn't mean that Khan Academy or the Gates Foundation has given up on the idea of AI tutoring.
The promise is still that AI can solve social inequities by unlocking education as never before.
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