Harvard's Bharat N. Anand Highlights AI’s Role in Making Education More Affordable

Harvard University’s Professor Bharat N. Anand recently shed light on how artificial intelligence (AI) could play a transformative role in making education more accessible and affordable. Speaking about the future of education, Anand emphasized the importance of reimagining traditional learning models to reach a broader audience at lower costs.

In the last decade, Harvard has reached exponentially more people outside the walls of its physical classrooms, teaching approximately 15 million students online. That's compared to the 17,000 students that the organization enrolls in its degree programs each year. The worldwide movement towards online learning is a testament to the potential of digital technology, like AI, to equalize the playing field in education.

Anand cited Harvard's AXM program, which is aimed at the 40 million Americans who start college but fail to finish. He noted that technology needs to be utilized to fill the gap and allow more students to finish school. With AI-based learning systems, students are able to receive personalized education based on their own needs, improving learning and ease.

AI has already begun transforming much of the education, from automating back-end processes to more student interaction with adaptive learning technology. Anand pointed out that if institutions implemented AI, they could lower operational expenses, and this would enable them to provide cheaper education without reducing quality.

Although AI presents humongous possibilities, Anand envisaged issues with the process of embracing technology within academia. Institutions were challenged by him to deploy new thinking but not lose touch with the reality that education was interactive, inclusive, and productive. With colleges worldwide grappling with the potential offered by AI, the ideal proportion but yet again needs to be found between using technology and adopting old world pedagogic mechanisms.

Harvard's adoption of leveraging AI and digital media to expand access to learning is one aspect of a broader effort to deliver high-quality learning experiences to students regardless of geography or economic constraints. As institutions are on the move to explore AI-based models, the future of education may be more responsive, personalized, and accessible than ever.

Anand's words are an affirmation of the growing sense that AI is not merely a tool for enriching education but a force behind change in learning delivery and acquisition everywhere in the world. As more breakthroughs take center stage, AI can also be an overarching force behind the next generation of teachers and learners.