Interview with Amanda Bakerstaff, CEO of AI for Education

https://www.aiforeducation.io

https://www.linkedin.com/in/amanda-bickerstaff-edu/

Introduction

- Amanda went to Emory University and then became a teacher in the Bronx, which was a highly formative experience that shaped her perspective on equity and access in education.

Her Career Path

- She later became a CEO of an edtech company in Australia during the pandemic, but ended up leaving due to burnout.

- After using ChatGPT for the first time in March 2022 to easily create a rubric, she realized the potential of AI to transform education but also the lack of support to properly implement it. This led her to start AI for Education.

AI for Education

- Focused on the responsible adoption of AI in education through an ethical, effective and equitable lens.

- Offers free resources like a prompt library with over 100 prompts to make it easy for teachers to start using AI. Also provides paid consulting and training services.

- Has become a key voice in policy discussions and guidance around AI in education.

Equity and Access Considerations

- Amanda stresses that readiness to learn depends as much on external factors like healthcare and home environment as internal school factors.

- Calls for responsibility in adopting AI tools that currently lack reliability and oversight for use by students.

- Is excited by the potential for AI models that can run offline on low-bandwidth devices to increase access globally.

The Future

- Sees a need to balance hype around generative AI with existing deterministic AI that can provide more reliable, specialized functionality.

- Expects major advances in tooling and the use of AI to accelerate all technology development.

- More exploration needed on how AI will transform student learning.

Action Items

- Check out AI for Education's free resources on their website.

- Connect with Amanda on LinkedIn to stay updated.

- Have Amanda back on the show to discuss more on the student impact of AI.