We had a thread on this AI public school a while back. They are spreading out, and there is more specific info available in a new new article below:

• Cost is a paltry $50 $75K per year.

• No academic teachers, all lessons are self-contained AI.
• When personal academic tutoring is required (rarely???), it is done virtually with teachers in the Philippines.
• The bulk of the time, students participate in activities with "guides", non-teachers paid ~ $150k/year. Pool seems particularly popular.

https://nypost.com/2026/01/30/business/new-65k-private-school-uses-ai-to-teach-students-in-just-two-hours-a-day-in-silicon-valley-bid-to-shake-up-us-education/

1) Cutting through all the hype, even working parents will be able to homeschool their kids with AI, if they can find a place to dump the kids during the day. Or build your own "pods" :-) (see the story ).

2) If the Dixie Chicken will let them in and you come up with my $150K, I will selflessly move back to CS and serve as your kids' guide.

edit spelling

For struggling schools put a security POC in each class room, and then enforce the rules. A father figure will be so much better then a computer parent.

I don't think I'll be spending 65k a year on a school that thinks solving a Rubik's cube is a life skill....

But good look to the business model as long it doesn't leach taxpayer money via subsidy

I was really looking forward to AI creating good learning tools for students, but AI hasn't lived up to the hype. It just spouts bull**** too frequently.

And I'm really tired of this word "hallucinations".

When your coworker spouts wrong information and does things incorrectly, either out of ignorance or intentionally, you don't give him the benefit of the doubt and say "Oh Marvin's hallucinating again, we just gotta give him better work instructions."

Call hallucinations what they really are, total made up bull**** because and AI model doesn't have the ability to answer "I don't know, let me get back to you" and then go learn something new. It's a fixed unchanging code base, it cannot grow intellectually. To "learn" something new, you have to scrap it and retrain it from nothing again, only to get a new slightly different fixed model.

Stmichael said:

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LLM's to this day haven't yet demonstrated the ability to get basic true statements right 100% of the time. They will confidently tell you wrong information as if it were truth, and the rate of these hallucinations is still double digit percentage.

Fix that first, then come tell me that someone has figured out how to replace human teachers.

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You have my star, for sure.

OTOH, vetting K-12 is not particularly hard for an AI. And the opportunity to have individualized practice, reinforcement, and extension right now is limited to those that hire individual tutors. This is where I believe AI can really shine.

AND - I call BS on the 2 hours per day being optimal, if nothing else I would want my kid reading another hour per day.

Stmichael said:

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LLM's to this day haven't yet demonstrated the ability to get basic true statements right 100% of the time.

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Human teachers to this day haven't yet demonstrated the ability to get basic true statements right 100% of the time.
What's the difference?

I taught Algebra and Pre-Algebra one year. Didn't like the tests the textbook publisher provided so made my own. I would sometime use AI to check my tests for calc and typo errors.

It found some and sometimes thought it did, but was wrong. Taught me to not trust the damn thing.

That also led to homework problems I would find out that were done with AI. Similar errors across several students.

AI better get a lot better because for a growing number of kids (and adults) it's their surrogate thinker.

This sounds stupid, but having now worked in a public school for the last 3 years I can tell you there is a LOT of wasted time per day. You could easily and effectively homeschool for 2-3 hours a day and get as much or more instruction than the typical public school child does in a day.

I'm constantly amazed at the things we label AI like it's some broad term for "more advanced" instead of actually talking about LLMs or machine learning, etc.

Who is going to pay $65k a year to have a kid do 2 hours of playing on a tablet a day? Thats the wild part. K-12 education is in a bad spot today but I'm not sure this is the solution. If I was going to pay for school, I'd pay much less for a traditional private school where a kid actually interacts with teachers and other students. This is a dumb idea.

LLMs can't do this

You are describing AGI and we aren't there yet

ts5641 said:

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This sounds stupid, but having now worked in a public school for the last 3 years I can tell you there is a LOT of wasted time per day. You could easily and effectively homeschool for 2-3 hours a day and get as much or more instruction than the typical public school child does in a day.

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Two subjects per day in that 2-3 hours (taught well) and your kid will be light-years ahead of public education.

Pinochet said:

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I'm constantly amazed at the things we label AI like it's some broad term for "more advanced" instead of actually talking about LLMs or machine learning, etc.

Who is going to pay $65k a year to have a kid do 2 hours of playing on a tablet a day? Thats the wild part. K-12 education is in a bad spot today but I'm not sure this is the solution. If I was going to pay for school, I'd pay much less for a traditional private school where a kid actually interacts with teachers and other students. This is a dumb idea.

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Agree. Humans are generally much better adapted to confront the challenges in life if they are forced to socially interact with others, all the way from toddlers to old people. You learn there can be many different ways of thinking about things and that you don't always get your way. You also learn that you have to stand up for yourself and not let people run over you either. All good lessons that won't be learned from interacting with a chatbot.

Stmichael said:

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LLM's to this day haven't yet demonstrated the ability to get basic true statements right 100% of the time. They will confidently tell you wrong information as if it were truth, .

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So essentially public school teachers

Im Gipper said:

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Stmichael said:

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LLM's to this day haven't yet demonstrated the ability to get basic true statements right 100% of the time. They will confidently tell you wrong information as if it were truth, .

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So essentially public school teachers

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Sure, but now you're paying your property taxes and an extra $65k a year for the privilege.

Man, it's February and I'm still waiting to see my freshman son have any homework…and he's taking "honors" classes. I don't believe the public schools can be fixed…

Im Gipper said:

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Stmichael said:

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LLM's to this day haven't yet demonstrated the ability to get basic true statements right 100% of the time. They will confidently tell you wrong information as if it were truth, .

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So essentially public school teachers

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LoL

A_Gang_Ag_06 said:

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A fool and his money…

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And their population is growing exponentially.

ts5641 said:

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This sounds stupid, but having now worked in a public school for the last 3 years I can tell you there is a LOT of wasted time per day. You could easily and effectively homeschool for 2-3 hours a day and get as much or more instruction than the typical public school child does in a day.

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Probably depends on the grade taught.

Pichael Thompson said:

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I don't think I'll be spending 65k a year on a school that thinks solving a Rubik's cube is a life skill....

But good look to the business model as long it doesn't leach taxpayer money via subsidy

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The cost is absurd but I'll push back here. Idk if I would call solving a Rubik's cube a "life skill" per se, but it does require heavily using 2 core aspects of intelligence: logical reasoning and visual-spatial reasoning. Both traits directly correlate with aptitude in STEM fields.

Education shouldn't just be rote memorization of facts; it should try to maximize actual intelligence in students. Otherwise, you end up with a bunch of idiots that are completely incapable of applying their education to practical applications.

Im Gipper said:

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Stmichael said:

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LLM's to this day haven't yet demonstrated the ability to get basic true statements right 100% of the time. They will confidently tell you wrong information as if it were truth, .

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So essentially public school teachers

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I just spit out my oatmeal thanks to this.

Stmichael said:

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LLM's to this day haven't yet demonstrated the ability to get basic true statements right 100% of the time. They will confidently tell you wrong information as if it were truth, and the rate of these hallucinations is still double digit percentage.

Fix that first, then come tell me that someone has figured out how to replace human teachers.

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So….better than your typical lib teacher?

Stmichael said:

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LLM's to this day haven't yet demonstrated the ability to get basic true statements right 100% of the time. They will confidently tell you wrong information as if it were truth, and the rate of these hallucinations is still double digit percentage.

Fix that first, then come tell me that someone has figured out how to replace human teachers.

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"Basic" statements? I'd be curious to see some of the current LLMs with these basic statements they get wrong.

ts5641 said:

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This sounds stupid, but having now worked in a public school for the last 3 years I can tell you there is a LOT of wasted time per day. You could easily and effectively homeschool for 2-3 hours a day and get as much or more instruction than the typical public school child does in a day.

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I taught upper level math and science classes for 4 years. Students make a huge difference. 2 Years at TAG, we booked the whole class. 2 years at inner city school, between breaking up fights in the hall, policing craps and dope in the bathroom next door, and the lack of interest of many kids, I was lucky to be effective more than 20 minutes of a 50 minute period.

I don't think that has gotten better in the last 40 years. So totally agree.

A_Gang_Ag_06 said:

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A fool and his money is some party…

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Sounds like the education scene for young Spock from the newer Star Trek movies

Jaydoug said:

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I taught Algebra and Pre-Algebra one year. Didn't like the tests the textbook publisher provided so made my own. I would sometime use AI to check my tests for calc and typo errors.

It found some and sometimes thought it did, but was wrong. Taught me to not trust the damn thing.

That also led to homework problems I would find out that were done with AI. Similar errors across several students.

AI better get a lot better because for a growing number of kids (and adults) it's their surrogate thinker.

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This a big AI push right now to get better at advanced math. I get LinkedIn messages every week asking me to work for some startup. Usually it's been an insulting rate, but the last few messages the money offered has increased substantially. I couldn't live with myself with how it'd be used - now if there was a significant ownership stake along with it ...

TRM said:

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Jaydoug said:

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I taught Algebra and Pre-Algebra one year. Didn't like the tests the textbook publisher provided so made my own. I would sometime use AI to check my tests for calc and typo errors.

It found some and sometimes thought it did, but was wrong. Taught me to not trust the damn thing.

That also led to homework problems I would find out that were done with AI. Similar errors across several students.

AI better get a lot better because for a growing number of kids (and adults) it's their surrogate thinker.

---

This a big AI push right now to get better at advanced math. I get LinkedIn messages every week asking me to work for some startup. Usually it's been an insulting rate, but the last few messages the money offered has increased substantially. I couldn't live with myself with how it'd be used - now if there was a significant ownership stake along with it ...

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Mathematicians in a pi fight.

IIIHorn said:

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TRM said:

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Jaydoug said:

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I taught Algebra and Pre-Algebra one year. Didn't like the tests the textbook publisher provided so made my own. I would sometime use AI to check my tests for calc and typo errors.

It found some and sometimes thought it did, but was wrong. Taught me to not trust the damn thing.

That also led to homework problems I would find out that were done with AI. Similar errors across several students.

AI better get a lot better because for a growing number of kids (and adults) it's their surrogate thinker.

---

This a big AI push right now to get better at advanced math. I get LinkedIn messages every week asking me to work for some startup. Usually it's been an insulting rate, but the last few messages the money offered has increased substantially. I couldn't live with myself with how it'd be used - now if there was a significant ownership stake along with it ...

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Mathematicians in a pi fight.

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Look who is trying to be acute!

BigRobSA said:

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IIIHorn said:

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TRM said:

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Jaydoug said:

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I taught Algebra and Pre-Algebra one year. Didn't like the tests the textbook publisher provided so made my own. I would sometime use AI to check my tests for calc and typo errors.

It found some and sometimes thought it did, but was wrong. Taught me to not trust the damn thing.

That also led to homework problems I would find out that were done with AI. Similar errors across several students.

AI better get a lot better because for a growing number of kids (and adults) it's their surrogate thinker.

---

This a big AI push right now to get better at advanced math. I get LinkedIn messages every week asking me to work for some startup. Usually it's been an insulting rate, but the last few messages the money offered has increased substantially. I couldn't live with myself with how it'd be used - now if there was a significant ownership stake along with it ...

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Mathematicians in a pi fight.

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Look who is trying to be acute!

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Obtuse.

Y'all are off on a tangent.

Homeschool. Get more done in 2 hours than a public school does all day. And no AI.

TRM said:

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Y'all are off on a tangent.

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We didn't sine off on this.

I think you and BigRob cosined for it.