Google says AI in education is a helper for teachers, not their replacement
Google is doubling down on AI in classrooms. But even as it partners with the Indian government and institutes, the company explains that AI is primarily a tool for teachers. It is not their replacement.
Increasingly, it seems like AI can do many jobs humans do. But can it also teach students and replace teachers? Only time will tell. For now Google believes that AI tools like Gemini are just tools for educators. They are teaching aids in a classroom and create personalised education for students, but they are not a replacement of teachers.
As the company announced fresh initiatives in India as part of its AI-For-Education programme, Google VP for Education Chris Phillips told India Today Tech that by putting Gemini AI in classrooms, Google’s aim is to give “teachers back more time so they can focus on the human connection” while teaching.
"India is home to power users that are embracing multimodal, multilingual, and deep learning, and we are seeing that usage right here with products like Gemini,” said Chris. "We are excited by the opportunity to improve learning outcomes by scaling personalised, active learning through deep collaboration with the education ecosystem.”
The collaboration with teachers and institutes is, according Chris, key to bringing a tool like Gemini AI to classrooms. This is different from making the tools available directly to students. As part of its AI-For-Education programme, Google has announced partnerships with the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship and Chaudhary Charan Singh University.
Additionally, the company aims to train over 40,000 Kendriya Vidyalaya teachers on responsible AI. It has also in recent days announced a mock JEE test that students can access through Gemini AI. The test has been developed in collaboration with Physics Wallah and Career360.
“When it comes to education and AI, we really believe that partnering with institutions, the government, the teachers themselves, so that the teacher can provide the instruction, the curriculum, the syllabus, the class notes, the projects,” said Chris. “They should be defining what they want and how they want to teach using the (AI) tools. So from an educational perspective, we want to be really teacher-led.”
By empowering teachers with AI tools, Google hopes that it would free up their time to focus less on mundane and more on what really matters — on personalised and guided teaching for each student, with an emphasis on human connection.
“We're not displacing teachers with AI. We want to enhance their capabilities, give them the tools so that they can have more time with students,” said Chris. “It's not just the technology, it's the partnership with the teacher so they are using the technology to support what they're trying to teach. We’re hoping that this ultimately leads to better outcomes (for students).”