Generative AI is creating waves all over the world, and ChatGPT has been the buzzword for so long. Its striking capabilities in creating conversations, art and videos paved the way for a surge in subscribers for ChatGPT within two months. The Large Language Models (LLMs) and transformers that boost GenAI are pioneering technology that ensures to be as disruptive as the smartphone's internet. Besides the involvement in GDP over the next decades, the excitement is accompanied by some unease around the loss of jobs and human agency and the looming threat of an AI superintelligence, as per the reports. Moreover, there are worries concerning bias, environmental damage, plagiarism and a threat to democracy as well. 

However, the paradigm-changing possibilities that GenAI brings need to be appreciated. One of the clear cases is the education sector. During the time of the GPT-4 launch, OpenAI and Khan Academy collaborated to build a hyper-personalised tutor for educating kids, which is called Khanmigo. This platform acts as a personal tutor for every child in assisting her to learn and create by not giving the answers but acting like a good teacher and leading her to the right answer through a series of logical and educative strategies. 

Moreover, the urgent need for education is in rural India, with a literacy rate of 69% as opposed to a national average of 84% as per the 2011 Census. This is specifically bad for women as female literacy is trailing at 59% when compared to males at 79%. One in five children gives up on education due to poverty. Hence, a 1:35 student-teacher ratio and a third of schools lack basic infrastructure, especially for girls. Furthermore, students want to learn English, while the medium of instruction will be any other language than English. This is where Generative AI becomes the player. 

Some ways in which GenAI can help in enhancing rural education: 

GenAI is helping in bridging the quality gap

Utilising apps like Khanmigo enables children to have a personalised tutor with personalised learning plans and quizzes and offers real-time feedback, which reduces the teacher-student gap that is a significant concern. 

GenAI helps in breaking the language barrier

The ability to understand and generate diverse languages makes the generative AI help in translating textbooks or instructional material into local dialects, which makes education more inclusive and understandable. This helps children from remote villages to have access to world-class material in their mother tongue. 

GenAI helps in updating the curriculum

Generative AI can easily update educational materials that can be included in the latest information or methodologies, making sure that children from rural areas are not left out in this rapidly changing world.

GenAI helps in empowering the teachers

Generative AI has the power to upgrade the skills of teachers through the methods of personalised training modules and the continuous learning process.

To sum up, integrating generative AI applications into rural education in India can do magic and is an urgent imperative in today’s scenario. With the power of generative AI, the prevailing digital divide can be transformed into a digital bridge and can be a robust way to educate children across the country.

• https://www.financialexpress.com/jobs-career/education-how-generative-ai-could-change-the-landscape-of-learning-in-rural-india-for-students-3284203/
• Photo by Kimberly Farmer on Unsplash