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Harvard’s AI Professors Raise Questions About Teaching’s Future
Harvard Business School has started an online course about building a business.
It lasts eight weeks and costs $699.
Students can talk with computer-made versions of professors as they practise developing and pitching an idea.
This could help more people learn from teachers they might not otherwise meet.
In India, such tools might help where schools lack enough maths and science teachers.
But students need internet, devices, electricity and digital skills to use them.
The article also warns that good AI lessons in Indian languages may be hard to find.
A computer can explain things, but it may not give students the same trust, encouragement and personal connection as a human teacher.
The author says teachers can use AI while focusing on guiding students, discussion and mentorship.
Harvard Business School launched HBS Foundry, an eight-week online entrepreneurship bootcamp.
The programme costs $699, or roughly Rs 67,000, and includes AI agents and simulated conversations with professor avatars.
The programme is intended to bring Harvard entrepreneurship training to more people than the school’s roughly 900 annual admits.
The article notes that a survey in 10 states found shortages of mathematics and science teachers in schools.
The author argues AI could widen educational inequalities, while human teachers remain important for mentorship and personal connection.
- Who
- Harvard Business School launched HBS Foundry; the article also examines students and teachers in India.
- What
- An eight-week entrepreneurship programme uses AI agents and professor-like avatars, prompting debate about AI’s role in education.
- Where
- The programme is online; the article considers possible implications for education in India.
- When
- The article does not specify a launch date.
- Why
- The programme aims to extend Harvard’s entrepreneurship training beyond the roughly 900 students the business school admits each year.
AI Can Expand Access
Human Teachers Remain Essential
Access to expert teaching
AI Can Expand Access
AI professor avatars could let students interact with renowned teachers and access expertise otherwise unavailable to them.
Human Teachers Remain Essential
Access depends on reliable internet, devices, electricity and digital skills, potentially deepening educational inequalities.
What AI can teach
AI Can Expand Access
AI avatars can deliver course material and simulate conversations, potentially making learning more engaging than recorded lectures.
Human Teachers Remain Essential
The article argues that information delivery cannot replace a teacher’s personal connection, mentorship and ability to encourage critical thinking.
The future role of teachers
AI Can Expand Access
AI may take on some teaching tasks and help extend instruction to more learners.
Human Teachers Remain Essential
Human teachers can adapt their teaching and focus on social development, discussion and mentoring—roles the article says AI avatars cannot perform.
Key facts
- Programme
- HBS Foundry, an online entrepreneurship bootcamp from Harvard Business School
- Duration
- Eight weeks
- Price
- $699, or roughly Rs 67,000, according to the article
- Programme content
- Course material, AI agents trained on faculty expertise, an entrepreneur community and simulated video conversations with AI avatars
- Teaching capacity context
- A Tata Institute of Social Sciences survey of schools in 10 states found shortages of mathematics and science teachers
- Access concern
- Unequal access to internet, devices, electricity, digital skills and high-quality AI content in Indian languages could widen disparities
- Article author
- Angshuman Kar, Professor of English at the University of Burdwan
Quotes
Thomas Eisenmann
One of the HBS Foundry professors
“love AI. They use AI. They’re learning a lot. But it keeps coming back to humanity”
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Sources
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