By Erin Liam

Copyright channelnewsasia

“SHORTCUT THINKING”

Experts cautioned that AI tutors must be built in a way to promote true learning – in other words, to ensure students are not spoon-fed solutions.

Mr Jonathan Sim, a lecturer at the National University of Singapore’s (NUS) learning and development academy, pointed out that an AI tutor could potentially give in and simply provide answers when prompted by impatient students.

When CNA attempted to use the free version of an AI tutor, the bot indeed generated the correct answer to a maths question after being given the input “I don’t know”.

“If people have no motivation to learn, all this will fail,” said Mr Sim, adding that the better AI tutors would be those created in close partnership with teachers and engineers.

As AI cannot “magically understand” the struggles individual students face in their learning processes, a teacher’s experience is needed to anticipate how the bot should respond if students display signs of giving up, he said.

Dr Wong Lung Hsiang, a senior education research scientist at the National Institute of Education (NIE), said AI could promote “shortcut thinking” if used poorly.

“The danger is not just cheating, but subtle cognitive atrophy. When AI provides fluent, well-structured responses, students may stop practising key skills like analysis, synthesis and independent judgment,” he said.

Tutorly acknowledged that while “not easy” to detect when students misuse the tool, most of them use it under the guidance of their parents.

WizzTutor meanwhile has a dashboard for parents to oversee how their child uses the platform, including the prompts they put in.

Ms Shubhada told CNA she was aware of the risks of over-relying on AI tools, and that she agreed with the need to set clear boundaries. But with the newfound ease of having an AI tutor, she doesn’t see herself signing her son Shrihaan up for in-person tuition anytime soon.

“Now, the ball is in the court of … the tuition centres. So they have to give something which AI doesn’t give.”

HUMAN STILL NEEDED

For parents, experts and businesses CNA spoke to, that something could be the ability to stimulate and inspire.

“What we lose when we move away from a human tuition teacher to an AI tuition teacher is … that human to manage and motivate the learner,” said NUS’ Mr Sim.

He said it was key to have a “human in the loop”, or someone to set the context and to discuss with the student what was learnt from using the AI platform.

NIE’s Dr Wong agreed, saying: “We need to normalise asking ‘what did I learn from this?’ alongside ‘did I get it right?’.”

AI must be viewed as a thinking partner and not a solution provider; and students must make a habit out of comparing the AI’s output with their own understanding, he added.

Ultimately, Dr Wong’s view was that while AI tutors are on the rise, they are unlikely to fully replace in-person options. Instead, more hybrid models will emerge.

The Geniebook firm, for one, is moving to expand both in-person and online services – “symbiotic offerings” to help improve students, according to CEO Neo Zhizhong.

“Technology can do a lot of things,” he said. “But it cannot do some simple things, like a pat on the back.”