Imagine if James Madison spoke to a social studies class about drafting the U.S. Constitution. Or students studying Shakespeare asked MacBeth if he鈥檇 thought through the consequences of murder. What if a science class could learn about migratory birds by interviewing a flock of Canadian geese?
Artificial intelligence persona chatbots鈥攍ike the ones emerging on platforms like Character.AI鈥攃an make those extraordinary conversations possible, at least technically.
But there鈥檚 a big catch: Many of the tools spit out inaccuracies right alongside verifiable facts, feature significant biases, and appear hostile or downright creepy in some cases, educators and experts who have examined the tools point out.
Pam Amendola, a tech enthusiast and English teacher at Dawson County High School in Dawsonville, Ga., sees big potential for these tools. But for now, she鈥檚 being cautious about how she uses them in her classroom.
鈥淚n theory, it鈥檚 kind of cool, but I don鈥檛 have any confidence in thinking that it鈥檚 going to provide students with real time, factual information,鈥� Amendola said.
Similarly, Micah Miner, the director of instructional technology for the Maywood-Melrose Park-Broadview School District 89 near Chicago, worries the bots could reflect the biases of their creators.
A James Madison chatbot programmed by a left-leaning Democrat could give radically different answers to students鈥� questions about the Constitution than one created by a conservative Republican, for instance.
鈥淚n social studies, that鈥檚 very much a scary place,鈥� he said. 鈥淭hings evolve quickly, but in its current form, no, this would not be something that I would encourage鈥� teachers to use.
Miner added one big exception: He sees great potential in persona bots if the lesson is exploring how AI itself works.
鈥楻emember: Everything characters say is made up!鈥�
Persona bots have gotten more attention, thanks to the growing popularity of Character.AI, a platform that debuted as a beta website last fall. An app that anyone can use was released late last month.
Its bots are powered by so-called large language models, the same technology behind ChatGPT, an AI writing tool that can spit out a term paper, haiku, or legal brief that sounds remarkably like something a human would compose. Like ChatGPT, the bots are trained using data available on the internet. That allows them to take on the voice, expressions, and knowledge of the character they represent.
But just as ChatGPT makes plenty of errors, Character.AI鈥檚 bots should not be considered a reliable representation of what a particular person鈥攍iving, deceased, or fictional鈥攚ould say or do. The platform itself makes that crystal clear, peppering its site with warnings like 鈥淩emember: Everything characters say is made up!鈥�
There鈥檚 good reason for that disclaimer. I interviewed one of Character.AI鈥檚 Barack Obama chatbots about the former president鈥檚 K-12 education record, an area I closely covered for 澳门跑狗论坛. Bot Obama got the basics right: Was Arne Duncan a good choice for education secretary? Yes. Do you support vouchers? No.
But the AI tool stumbled over questions about the Common Core state standards initiative, calling its implementation 鈥渂otched. ... Common Core math was overly abstract and complex,鈥� the Obama Bot said. 鈥淚t didn鈥檛 help kids learn, and it created a lot of stress over something that should be relatively simple.鈥� That鈥檚 a view expressed all over the internet, but it doesn鈥檛 reflect anything the real Obama said.
The platform also allows users鈥攊ncluding K-12 students鈥攖o create their own chatbots, also powered by large language models. And it offers AI bot assistants that can help users prepare for job interviews, think through a decision, write a story, practice a new language, and more.
鈥楾hese AI models are like improv actors鈥�
Learning by interviewing someone in character isn鈥檛 a new idea, as anyone who has ever visited a site like Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia knows, said Michael Littman, a professor of computer science at Brown University. Actors there adopt characters鈥攂lacksmith, farmer鈥攖o field questions about daily life in the 18th century, just as an AI bot might do with someone like Obama.
Actors might get their facts wrong too, but they understand that they are supposed to be part of an educational experience. That鈥檚 obviously not something an AI bot can comprehend, Littman explained.
If a tourist tries to deliberately trip up an actor, they鈥檒l typically try to deflect the question in character because 鈥渉uman beings know the limits of their knowledge,鈥� Littman said. 鈥淭hese AI models are like improv actors. They just say 鈥榊es and鈥� to almost everything. And so, if you鈥檙e like, 鈥楬ey, do you remember that time in Colonial Williamsburg when the aliens landed?鈥� The bot is, like, 鈥榶eah, that was really scary! We had to put down our butter churns!鈥欌��
In fact, it鈥檚 possible for hackers to knock a persona chatbot off its game in a way that overrides safeguards put in by its developer, said Narmeen Makhani, the executive director of AI and product engineering at the Educational Testing Service.
Bot creators often put in special conditions into a persona bot that keep it from using swear words or acting hostile. But users with 鈥渕alicious intent and enough tech knowledge鈥� can erase those special conditions, just by asking the right questions, turning a friendly and helpful AI representation of a historical figure or fictional character into a tool that鈥檚 no longer suitable for students, Makhani said.
Educators considering using AI-powered persona bots in their classrooms should 鈥渕ake sure they know who has built the tools and what sort of principles and ethics they have in place,鈥� Makhani added. They may be best off choosing 鈥渄evelopers that are specifically focused on educational content for a young age group,鈥� she said.
One prominent, early example: Khanmigo, an AI guide created by Khan Academy, a nonprofit education technology organization. Students can ask Khanmigo for help in understanding assignments. But they can also ask it to take on a particular persona, even a fictional one, Kristen DiCerbo, the chief learning officer at Khan Academy said during the 澳门跑狗论坛 Leadership Symposium last month.
For instance, a student reading The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, a mainstay of high school English classes, might be curious about the symbolism behind the green light at the end of Daisy Buchanan鈥檚 dock and could ask Khanmigo to pretend it is the central character in the story, Jay Gatsby. The bot will address their questions about the green light, 1920鈥檚 slang and all.
Here鈥檚 Khanmigo as Gatsby talking about the meaning of the green light: 鈥淚t鈥檚 a symbol of my dreams and aspirations,鈥� the tool said, according to DiCerbo. 鈥淭he green light represents my longing for Daisy, the love of my life, my desire to be reunited with her, and it symbolizes the American dream in the pursuit of wealth, status, and happiness. Now, tell me, sport: Have you ever had a dream or a goal that seemed just out of reach?鈥�
Any English teacher would likely recognize that as a common analysis of the novel, though Amendola said she wouldn鈥檛 give her students the, uh, green light, to use the tool that way.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 want a kid to tell me what Khanmigo said,鈥� Amendola said. 鈥淚 want the kids to say, 鈥榶ou know, that green light could have some symbolism. It could mean 鈥榞o.鈥� It could mean 鈥榠t鈥檚 OK.鈥� It could mean 鈥業 feel envy.鈥欌��
Having students come up with their own analysis is part of the 鈥渏ourney towards becoming a critical thinker,鈥� she said.
鈥楪ame changer as far as engagement goes鈥�
But Amendola sees plenty of other potential uses for persona bots. She would love to find one that could help students better understand life in the Puritan colony of Massachusetts, the setting of Arthur Miller鈥檚 play The Crucible. A historian, one of the characters, or AI Bot Miller could walk students through elements like the restrictions that society placed on women.
That kind of tech could be a 鈥済ame changer as far as engagement goes,鈥� she said. It could 鈥減repare them properly to jump back into that 1600s mindset, set the groundwork for them to understand why people did what they did in that particular story.鈥�
Littman isn鈥檛 sure how long it could take before Amendola and other teachers could bring persona bots into their classrooms that would be able to handle questions more like a human impersonator well versed in the subject. An Arthur Miller bot, for example, would have to be vetted by experts on the playwright鈥檚 work, developers, and educators. It could be a long and expensive process, at least with AI as it exists today, Littman said.
In the meantime, Amendola has already found ways to link teaching about AI bots to more traditional language arts content like grammar and parts of speech.
Chatbots, she tells her students, are everywhere, including acting as customer service agents on many company websites. Persona AI 鈥渋s just a chatbot on steroids,鈥� she said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 going to provide you with preprogrammed information. It鈥檚 going to pick the likeliest answer to whatever question that you might have.鈥�
Once students have that background understanding, she can go 鈥渙ne level deeper,鈥� exploring how a large language model is built and how bots construct responses one word at a time. That 鈥渢ies in directly with sentence structure, right?鈥� Amendola said. 鈥淲hat are nouns, adjectives, pronouns, and why do we have to put them together syntactically to make proper grammar?鈥�
鈥楾hat鈥檚 not a real person鈥�
Kaywin Cottle, who teaches an AI course at Burley Junior High in Burley, Idaho, was introduced to Character.AI earlier this school year by her students. She even set out to create an AI-powered version of herself that could help students with assignments. Cottle, who is nearing retirement, believes she found an instance of the site鈥檚 bias when she struggled to find an avatar that looked close to her age.
Her students have created their own chatbots, in a variety of personas, using them for homework help, or questioning them about the latest middle school gossip or teen drama. One even asked how to tell a good friend who is moving out-of-town that she would be missed.
Cottle plans to introduce the tool in class next school year, primarily to help her students grasp just how fast AI is evolving and how fallible it can be. Understanding that the chatbot often spits out wrong information will just be part of the lesson.
鈥淚 know there鈥檚 mistakes,鈥� she said. 鈥淭here鈥檚 a big disclaimer across the top [of the platform] that says this is all fictional. And I think my students need to better understand that part of it. I will say, 鈥榶ou guys, I want to make clear right here: This is fictional. That鈥檚 not a real person.鈥欌��
