SINGAPORE – At the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, social distancing rules meant that Ms Akshaya Rajesh could not hold study sessions with her friends.
She ended up explaining what she learnt out loud to a stuffed toy bear in her hostel room at the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD). “I remember thinking, ‘If only this bear could talk back to me and ask questions,’” said the 25-year-old generative artificial intelligence (AI) engineer, who graduated in 2022.
Recent advances in conversational chatbots have given her the tools to create the Feynman bot – named after a learning technique developed by Nobel laureate Richard Feynman. The physicist believed that to truly understand a topic, one should be able to explain it to oneself or others.
Unlike most popular AI chatbots used by students to get instant answers, the Feynman bot flips the script by testing the user’s understanding, asking questions like a friend would.
For more than a year, Ms Rajesh has used her free time after work – about four times a week – to develop the bot. To test it, she approached Dr Sumbul Khan, a senior lecturer at SUTD’s Science, Mathematics and Technology cluster, for help in letting a group of 70 first-year students use the bot as part of a six-week maths bridging course.
“We found that students who used the bot reported greater confidence in their knowledge during biweekly quizzes, as opposed to those who did not,” said Dr Khan.
“If somebody just gives you the answers, that is passive learning. But when you struggle with the concept a bit, that helps you in remembering the concepts better.”
For the bot to ask questions, students first need to upload their study materials such as lecture notes. It can simulate anyone – from a primary school pupil to a university graduate.
“The limit is around three to four times that users can say they don’t know the answer, then the bot will suggest an approach and give a new question based on this weakness,” said Ms Rajesh.
