My cousin's kid showed me his AI homework helper and it was... different

I was over at my sister's place in Tacoma last weekend and my 12-year-old nephew was doing a science project. He pulled up this thing called 'StudyBuddy AI' on his tablet. It wasn't just giving him answers... it was asking him questions back, like 'Why do you think that happens?' and then building a diagram with him step by step. He said his teacher recommended it. It made me realize how much AI for learning has moved past just being a fancy search bar. It felt more like a patient tutor that adapts to how you think. I've only ever used chatbots for customer service stuff, so seeing it used to actually teach a concept was a whole new thing. Has anyone else come across an AI tool recently that completely changed how you thought about what it could do?

2 comments

2 Comments

emery_brown14d ago

Yeah when @paul_sanchez said it's training how to think, that clicked for me. I saw a demo where an AI made a kid redo a history timeline three times until the cause and effect made sense. It's not just spitting facts, it's building understanding, which is wild.

paul_sanchez15d ago

Honestly I used to think AI for school was just a way to cheat faster. But my friend's daughter was using something similar for math, and it kept asking her to explain her steps out loud before it would move on. It wasn't about the answer, it was about her saying "I need to find the common denominator first." It kind of blew my mind. It felt less like a tool and more like it was training her how to think through a problem, which is way different than I expected.