Stephen Downes

Working with an AI chatbot is essentially a solitary exercise. This leaves the field open for social AI applications, especially in education. Applications include: facilitating group dynamics, matchmaking learners, surfacing hidden connections, relational support, and reflecting patters (there's a bit of cross-categorization in this list, obviously). The authors list a number of companies working on social AI: Breakout Learning, Honor Education, Human2Human AI, OKO Labs, PeerTeach, Swivl's M2, and YoChatGPT. I haven't sampled any of the work from these companies, so I'm not in a position to comment on them, though I've been to each of their websites, and they feel awful (presentation in universally from the teacher's or educational institution's perspective, and while they replicate existing classroom activities, none of these seems to bring anything new to the table). But yes, absolutely, there's a lot of room for AI support for social interaction.