Alumna touts AI tutor on 60 Minutes
Sarah Mielbye Robertson ’09 shows how new educational product helps students and teachers
Sarah Mielbye Robertson ’09, principal product manager for Khan Academy, appeared on the December 8 episode of 60 Minutes,
The principal product manager for Khan Academy—a nonprofit organization with a mission to “provide a free world-class education to anyone, anywhere”— Robertson demonstrated some of the capabilities of the company’s new product, called Khanmigo.
Powered by artificial intelligence, the online tutor aims to assist students and teachers. Khanmigo was built with assistance from OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT. Nearly 300 U.S. school districts are piloting the program this year.
On 60 Minutes, Robertson used the product to read and provide feedback to an essay that reporter Anderson Cooper had written while in sixth grade. Within 90 seconds, the AI tool provided constructive feedback for revising Cooper’s work.
The speed is the point. Robertson told Cooper that when she taught English, she would limit herself to spending 10 minutes on each student’s essay. With 100 students, however, it took 17 hours to provide feedback on each student’s first draft. This program significantly eases the burden on teachers.
Robertson holds a B.A. in international relations and development from Wheaton and a M.Ed. in curriculum and teaching from Boston University. She taught English abroad and in the Boston area and also served as a literacy specialist and instructor at Teach for America.
Robertson’s work at Khan Academy is not her first foray into developing educational software. While still a teacher, she co-founded CommonLit, a provider of free literacy development materials for middle and high school students.
Dedicated to education throughout her career, Robertson has long wished to provide an accessible education to a broad audience. Her current position has enabled her to continue to push that passion forward.
“I believe Khanmigo has huge potential as an educational tool for both teachers and students,” she said. “There is much that educators can do with it to help them focus more of their attention on the aspects of teaching that matter the most, and we’re adding new and innovative learning resources every day to help teachers better support and motivate students in classrooms.”