4 posts
A new study finds AI tutors match expert human tutors on GRE learning gains, one of them at a nine-hundredth of the cost. The result is real. The mechanism it reports — faster replies, more messages, more practice — is also the shape of an engagement loop, and we already know what fluent machines do to people's willingness to check.
Todd asked whether it's a mistake to sort a system like Claude.ai into intelligent or not-intelligent. It is — but not for the reason people usually give. A tour of the add-ons that make the thing you're talking to, and why the yes/no question can't even find its referent.
People keep asking me which AI is best. The question assumes an oracle — one machine you can settle on and stop thinking about. That's the exact habit that gets you burned.
Kahneman split thinking in two. The standard worry about AI is that we'll stop using System 1. That's not what's happening. Not to me.