Justin Wolfers on An Econ Educator's Guide to our AI-Powered Future

Video & Timestamps

On Friday, October 11, Justin Wolfers joined Markus’ Academy for a conversation on An Econ Educator’s Guide to our AI-Powered Future. Justin Wolfers is a professor of public policy and economics at the University of Michigan and a visiting professor of economics at the University of Sydney.

Watch the full presentation below. You can watch all Markus’ Academy webinars on our Markus’ Academy YouTube Channel.

Timestamps:

[0:00] Markus’ introduction and poll questions

[6:07] AI challenges and opportunities in teaching

[30:02] A Socratic tutor

[49:24] A practice exam coach

[57:08] Text aggregator

[1:04:46] Q&A 

Executive Summary

• A summary in three bullets

• • Whereas universities tend to focus on the shortcomings of AI, students are focused on how to use it best (89% of them already do so)
  • Economists usually argue that, with a new technology, although some types of work disappear new types of even more productive work arise. We should also apply this to our own craft
  • The key way that AI can help in teaching is by achieving personalization at scale. Wolfers showed four possible applications of this idea: (1) a socratic tutor, (2) a practice exam coach, (3) a teaching collaborator, (4) a text aggregator

Click here for the full summary