IAI Colloquium Series: “AI for Reskilling and Upskilling” by Dr. Ashok Goel

Abstract

As AI becomes increasingly powerful and ubiquitous, it is disrupting skills and displacing workers. At the National AI Institute for Adult Learning and Online Education (AI-ALOE) sponsored by the United States National Science Foundation, we posit that AI can be part of the solution to the growing problem if we can use AI for reskilling, upskilling, and workforce development at scale. The long-term vision of AI-ALOE is to develop and use AI technologies to enhance the proficiency of online education for adult learners, using in-person education as a benchmark. The day-to-day mission of AI-ALOE is to conduct responsible research into AI that is grounded in theories of human cognition and learning and derived from the scientific process of learning engineering. I will describe ongoing research at AI-ALOE on using AI for reskilling and upskilling, including Jill Watson, which started as a virtual teaching assistant a decade back and has since grown into a cognitive partner; Ivy, a new video coach based on a deep understanding of procedural skills; and A4L, a novel data architecture for supporting AI-augmented learning at scale.

Biography