One of the reasons I’m particularly excited about AI is how it can transform learning. But first, let’s understand what AI can do in this context.
One of the powers of AI, for example, is being language-agnostic. You can have content that’s in English, hand it over to AI, and then ask questions about this content in a different language.
Let’s say you ask questions in Italian; you’ll get answers related to that English content in Italian. This is part of how AI works and how it is structured and, to me, one of its most useful qualities.
What’s even more interesting is that now we’re starting to see AI avatars, AI voices, and interactive AI models.
How does that apply to learning?
When you want to learn (self-learn, specifically) something, you might go to YouTube or search Google or go to a dedicated site for course , and it can take a while to find the right approach—because not every approach works for everyone.
For example, you might learn better through videos, while others might prefer to learn specific topics related to design through PDFs and books.
But you might not always get the format you want. Sometimes you’re lucky enough to have a writer or video maker who creates content the way you like. However, as you probably learned during your school years, you don’t get to choose your teacher. You might choose the school or some of the subjects, but the teacher is a matter of luck, often times.
In this regard, I personally see a big shift in how AI can transform personalized learning, beyond what self-learning is today.
Right now, you check out different courses, videos, and websites to learn something—whether it’s woodworking, programming, design, or video making. Over time, since AI can ingest content from any language and of any type, it can create material relevant to that information in a different language or style.
Here’s an example of how I learned something through an unusual approach: Over time, I accumulated a lot of knowledge about backpack fabrics because I like backpacks, I enjoy traveling, and I like optimizing things. Gradually, I gained knowledge about fabrics.
How did I gain that knowledge?
By spending time in forums, reading Reddit, and so on. I realized that this sort of slow, ongoing consumption worked for me as a slow learning curve. I didn’t even know I was learning.
I began to wonder if I could learn something new in that same format.
So, I asked Claude to create Twitter/X threads on certain topics.
I started by trying to learn about large language models. Every day, I would receive 20 tweets about large language models.
Now, obviously, hallucinations are a problem, so be mindful of trusting AI entirely. But the point I’m making is that once you know what works for you in terms of learning, you can adapt and use AI to learn new skills in the way that suits you best.
Do you need a video? In the future, you could ask AI to create a video course for you. You could have content written as an exchange between two people in podcast form—NotebookLM is already doing this. You could structure it as a Twitter thread, as I mentioned. All these opportunities are right in front of us.
What is being asked of us now is to start understanding the way you personally learn. Once you have deeper introspection about how you learn best, how you understand things, and how you get excited about learning, you can apply that style to any topic you want and get a personalized learning experience.
Not all the tools are at this stage yet. If we think about creating a video course, we might still be a bit behind compared to anything that a chat interface can create. But we’re not that far off. So, keep this in mind when you begin learning something new—there may be opportunities for you to learn better and faster.
