Google says AI in education is an aid to teachers, not a replacement for them
Google is doubling down on AI in classrooms. But despite partnerships with the Indian government and institutions, the company points out that AI is primarily a tool for teachers. This is not their replacement.
It seems that AI can do many of the tasks that humans do. But can it both teach students and replace teachers? only time will tell. Right now Google believes that AI tools like Gemini are only tools for teachers. They are teaching aids in a classroom and create personalized learning for students, but they are not a replacement for teachers.
As the company announced the new initiative in India as part of its AI-for-education programme, Chris Phillips, vice president of education at Google, told India Today Tech that by putting Gemini AI in classrooms, Google aims to “give teachers more time so they can focus on human connections while teaching”.
“India is home to power users who are embracing multimodal, multilingual and deep learning and we are seeing that adoption right here with products like Gemini,” Chris said. “We are excited by the opportunity to improve learning outcomes by enhancing personalized, active learning through deeper collaboration with the education ecosystem.”
According to Chris, collaboration with teachers and institutions is key to bringing tools like Gemini AI into classrooms. This is different from providing devices directly to students. As part of its AI-for-education programme, Google has announced a partnership with the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship and Chaudhary Charan Singh University.
Additionally, the company aims to train more than 40,000 Kendriya Vidyalaya teachers on responsible AI. It has also announced in recent times a mock JEE test that students can take through Gemini AI. This test is Physics based and developed in collaboration with Career360.
“When it comes to education and AI, we really believe in partnering with institutions, government, teachers themselves, so teachers can provide instruction, curriculum, syllabi, class notes, projects,” Chris said. “They should define what they want and how they want to teach using (AI) tools. So from an educational perspective, we really want to be teacher-led.”
By empowering teachers with AI tools, Google hopes to free up their time to focus less on mundane things and more on what really matters – personalized and guided learning for each student, with an emphasis on human connections.
“We’re not displacing teachers with AI. We want to enhance their capabilities, give them tools so they can spend more time with students,” Chris said. “It’s not just technology, it’s a partnership with the teacher so they’re using technology to support what they’re trying to teach. We’re hoping this will ultimately lead to better outcomes (for students).”