The Los Angeles Unified School District has launched a new artificial intelligence platform that gives parents and students a “personal assistant” in the form of a sun-shaped chatbot named “Ed.”
District officials say the new platform will be a one-stop shop for parents and students, where they can access information about attendance, grades, and other resources. It can also wake a student up, tell them what’s for lunch in the school cafeteria that day, or where their school buses are in real-time, said LAUSD Superintendent Alberto Carvalho.
He said the portal is pooling together data the district already has, and analyzing it to create personalized recommendations for students.
“There is no other school system at this point that has democratized data sharing and the use of data to the benefit of students like we are,” Carvalho said.
As of Wednesday, he said Ed will be available to about 100 schools in the district, and that it’ll be available districtwide over the coming weeks.
He said the app is currently for parents and students, but there is potential for the tool to be used by teachers if they want to in the future.
Andrea Cunningham, a parent of two children at Woodcrest Elementary School, tried out the tool and said it was useful in helping her understand her children’s assignments so she could assist them with their homework.
“What I like about it is their immediate response,” she said.
