Salman Khan, in his twenties was working as a hedge fund analyst in Boston when his 12-year-old cousin form New Orleans asked him for  some help with maths, which prompted him to tutor Nadia over the phone and she went from the remedial class to being the top maths student in her school. Soon Khan, decides to give remote lessons in Calculus and Algebra to his other 15 cousins in Louisiana.  He created a website by writing the software that  generated practice questions and recorded videos  to put on YouTube. Soon tens of thousands of students watching his online tutorials every month. He had endorsements from Bill Gates who admitted in a conference that he had been using Khan’s videos to teach his children maths and his lessons went viral. The Khan Academy has now over 150 million users around the world and operates in 50 languages around the world. The aim according to Khan is to provide a free world class education for anyone with access to computers from children in remote Indian villages to girls banned from school in Afghanistan, as well as British and American students trying to master quadratic equations.

Khan, a pioneer in the world of education technology has transformed education through technology and turned his focus on AI. For the past two years he has been working on Open AI, the research laboratory that created ChatGPT to maximise potential and minimise the risk of AI for education.

Brave New Words is a timely master class for anyone interested in the future of learning in the AI era, explains the ins and outs of these cutting-edge tools and how they will forever change the way we learn and teach. Whether we like it or not, the AI revolution is coming to education, where visionary Khan explores how Artificial Intelligence and GPT technology will transform learning, offering a roadmap for teachers, parents and students to navigate this exciting  ( and sometimes intimidating) new world.

Khan wants teachers and parents to embrace AI and adapt to it while acknowledging  its imperfections and limitations. He emphasises that embracing AI in education is not about replacing human interaction but enhancing it, so that every student can complement the work they’re already doing in profoundly new and creative ways, to personalise learning, adapt assessments, and support success in the classroom, preparing students for an increasingly digital future.

Brave New Words emphasises what  this technology means for our society, and the practical implications for administrators , guidance counsellors, and hiring managers who can harness the power of AI in education and the workplace. Khan suggests the technology is  a game changer for education that  used in the right way, could have enormous benefits for teachers and pupils. “By bringing AI into the classroom, schools could reduce burnout among staff, personalise education and narrow the attainment gap between rich and poor students. Soon students might be able to learn faster and retain more information than ever before, proving AI to be the ultimate learning tool for accelerating human intelligence and potential” Khan suggests.

For teachers AI will be like having three teaching assistants working round the clock to produce lesson plans, grade pupils’ work and complete paperwork. Khan argues that AI offers solution to the recruitment and retention crisis in schools. Bye allowing professionals to concentrate on the bits of the job they love. AI is not here to steal the show from teachers, it’s here to help teachers steal the show” Khan writes.

Brave New Words How AI Will Revolutionaries Education ( and Why That’s a Good Thing) by Sloan Khan, Allen Lane, £25, 272pp