Mathematician: COVID evidence shows AI tutors can't replace classrooms
AlexKontorovich · x · 2026-09-03
- Princeton mathematician Alex Kontorovich agrees emphatically that there's no evidence a pure AI tutoring model can replicate the multiple effects of classroom learning—and ample evidence to the contrary.
- He points to the COVID natural experiment: even with live humans on screen, most kids emphatically did not want to learn.
- A few students do amazing things iterating with an LLM, but in bulk, people still need human teachers—which is why he remains bullish on human mathematicians.
Related event: Mathematician Cites Pandemic Evidence That AI Tutors Can't Replace Teachers(2 posts)→
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