Google’s Gemini AI now has a “guided learning” mode that tries to help you understand the problems you’re trying to learn about instead of just giving you the answer. Guided learning “acts as a learning companion” that guides you through “questions and step-by-step support,” CEO Sundar Pichai said in a blog post.
Guided learning answers can include images, videos, and interactive quizzes. According to Pichai, the company has worked with students, teachers, researchers, and learning experts to ensure that this mode is “useful for understanding new concepts and is based on scientific research.”
AI companies are increasingly moving into education – perhaps in part to try to combat the reputation of AI tools that help students cheat. Features like Gemini’s guided study mode and ChatGPT’s similar study mode announced last week could theoretically help with learning, but the question is whether students will want to use these modes instead of just using AI chatbots to get easy answers.
As part of its announcements on Wednesday, Google is now allowing students 18 and older in the US, Japan, Indonesia, Korea, and Brazil to sign up for a 12-month AI Pro Plan for free if they do so by October 6. According to Pichai, the company will also allocate $1 billion over three years to “American education, including AI training programs, research funding, and cloud computing resources.”
