Within a few short months, ChatGPT and its ilk have become hot conversation topics among educators.  Some say AI will trigger the demise of humanity, destroy original thought, and dumb down classroom instruction.  But what if the opposite were true?

In medicine, agriculture, and policing, AI advancements have been feted.  While in education, proponents have argued students will merely regurgitate what ChatGPT tells them and cease to think for themselves.  But as educators and freethinkers, one legitimate perspective is to question how new technologies might be used for productive ends.  What if we were to look to AI in education as a route to developing individual voice rather than passive acceptance of machine-generated suggestions.  Even as a springboard to widespread literacy.  These are the questions Writer’s Toolbox has been researching for over a decade.

AI rooted in education: an entirely different approach and outcome

The deep learning team at Writer’s Toolbox have wrestled with how to specifically engineer AI to support educational outcomes.  In contrast to generative AI, the objective was not to build software to produce text or, like Grammarly, to correct a writer’s syntax or word choices.  The objective for our team was far more fundamental: to teach a learner.

“Here is AI built to support the moral imperative of education: engage students who are switched off, lift underperformers, and push good writers to become great writers.”

Consequently, the team fused global curriculum requirements and cutting-edge writing instruction methodologies deep into the Writer’s Toolbox AI.  Then trained it on tens of millions of sentences of authentic student writing.  The result: AI that teaches a student—of any age or ability level—how to be a better writer.  This fundamentally pivots the AI debate.  For every time a student seeks feedback on their work, Writer’s Toolbox AI responds to where they are developmentally—right in the teachable moment.  Students learn what they have done well, and what they need to do to make their writing better: whatever subject or writing genre.

For the busy teacher, it is like having another set of hands. In a time where curriculum is exploding in breadth, Writer’s Toolbox AI develops and nurtures the teaching of writing, cementing the relationship between teacher and student.  Where classrooms are bursting at the seams and teacher time is precious, AI-based tools can provide the structure, learning, and feedback required to better a student’s understanding.

It’s individualised learning at scale—and it’s happening today 

In 2016, Writer’s Toolbox embarked on a four-year longitudinal study tracking the impact of our technology across 71 schools and nearly 79,000 students in Queensland, Australia.  The goal of the study was to understand how AI could be used to produce quantum shifts in student literacy.  The study found those using Writer’s Toolbox patented AI software advanced two to ten times faster than students who did not.  Teachers reported lifts in writing quality, improved drafts, higher levels of student engagement, and reduced workload.  Students themselves loved the immediate feedback, saw their skills and grades improve, and reported increased joy in writing.

If our fundamental aim is education, these are exciting results.  For improving writing outcomes doesn’t just impact school educational results, it has long-term economic and social benefits.  At a personal level, the difference in lifelong earnings between a person who goes to tertiary education and someone who does not is $1.6 million.  At a national level, the OECD report raising a nation’s literacy level by a mere one per cent translates into a 2.5 per cent gain in labour productivity and a 1.5 per cent increase in GDP (per individual).  Added to that, we already know increased literacy leads to reduced periods of unemployment, greater cross-collaboration in multi-disciplinary teams, and improved problem-solving skills.  When a person needs re-training later in life—or shifts career—stronger literacy skills offer greater employment opportunities and deeper engagement in our knowledge economy.  In short, lifting the writing skills of our students today won’t just transform the now: it alters the future for us all.  Educational AI can help create that journey.