Mathematician cites COVID-era experiment: most kids refuse to learn math from a screen
AlexKontorovich · x · 2026-09-03
Mathematician Alex Kontorovich pushes back on the claim that AI can replace teachers, citing a COVID-era experiment: even with a live human teaching on screen, the majority of kids emphatically did not want to learn math remotely; only a minority thrive iterating with an LLM.
He is therefore bullish on human mathematicians, arguing technical skills will become more valuable when coupled with AI and that people will still want to learn them from humans. The context: a Scientific American piece on Alpha School's AI-driven teaching model, where researchers note the science is unsettled and literature shows no evidence a pure AI tutoring model reproduces the full effects of classroom learning.
Related event: Mathematician Cites Pandemic Evidence That AI Tutors Can't Replace Teachers(2 posts)→
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