Microsoft Research India is creating Shiksha Copilot, a generative AI tool to aid teachers in crafting customised learning experiences, designing assignments, and generating interactive activities. It combines various content types, including text, images, videos, charts, and interactive elements, while emphasising proficiency in multiple languages. 

It is being developed in collaboration with the Sikshana Foundation, a local non-profit organisation dedicated to enhancing public education, and is currently being tested in more than 10 public schools in Bengaluru. 

The team reports significant improvements, as teachers can now create comprehensive lesson plans in just 60-90 seconds instead of the previous 60-90 minutes. This initiative is part of Project VeLLM (Universal Empowerment with Large Language Models) at Microsoft Research India, which primarily aims to address the digital divide by overcoming language, income, digital literacy, and information access barriers with LLMs. 

Project VeLLM strives to create an inclusive approach for LLM applications that can benefit people of diverse languages and cultures globally, making this technology accessible to a broader and more diverse population.

Designing Shiksha Copilot

Designing and building Shiksha Copilot involves handling diverse educational content types like text, images, videos, charts, and interactive elements. The goal is to create generative AI models with unified multimodal capabilities, particularly focusing on enhancing multilingual support. Shiksha Copilot offers several features to address these challenges, aligning content with specific curricula and learning objectives. 

This is achieved by leveraging optical character recognition, computer vision, and generative AI models while supporting natural language and voice-based interactions for English and Kannada speakers. It connects to public and private educational resources and can be accessed through platforms like WhatsApp, Telegram, and web applications. 

Semantic caching with LLMs is utilised to expedite content creation efficiently and reduce computational demands. The project maintains a strong focus on safety, reliability, and trustworthiness, implementing rigorous responsible AI procedures and content filtering to ensure the production of factual and reliable educational content.

In September, OpenAI announced a new guide for teachers to use ChatGPT in classrooms. The newly released guide contains recommended prompts, an overview of ChatGPT’s functioning and limitations, besides the efficacy of AI detectors, and a discussion on biases.

All this while students were using LLM based chatbots like OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google’s Bard to complete homework assignments, learn about different topics and more. However, now the tables have turned and this new copilot is going to boost the productivity of teachers. 

Read more: After Getting Banned in Schools, OpenAI Launches ChatGPT Tool for Teachers