Davos 2023 | ChatGPT is revolutionary, it's going to change education, says Coursera CEO Jeff Maggioncalda

ChatGPT is a revolutionary technology that is going to change education, feels CEO of Coursera, Jeff Maggioncalda, as it is a tool that doesn't think the way the human brain does.

In a conversation with CNBC-TV18’s Shereen Bhan, the chief of the online education platform said: “ChatGPT is a revolutionary technology. I’ve used it every day. With AI you can generate language and generate ideas. I think it is going to change education.”

“The thing about ChatGPT that is so different to me is that most tools are thinking tools. But this is a thinking tool that thinks, it doesn't think the way the human brain does. But it does recombine patterns of words, to recombine patterns of ideas,” he said.

ChatGPT, a chat bot that gives conversational responses, helps him as a writing assistant, to think about strategy, to organise the company or when thinking about a product idea.

“It is like a thought partner and it is tremendous. Now you have to have good critical thinking to point around the dangers. Sometimes it says stuff that's just flat out false and I think it's going to improve a lot and that's probably this idea of hallucination that's what they call it when it comes up with this fake stuff. But if you use it and put your own critical thinking on it, it can really help round out your thinking, test your thinking and even expand your ideas and for writing, it is incredibly good. So if you know what you want to say, it can help you say it,” he said.

“How do we integrate it into Coursera? Well, we have already integrated AI in terms of predictive AI with search,” he said.

On the large scale lay offs seen in the tech industry, Maggioncalda said his company had brought down hiring in 2022 and is narrowing its focus on key areas. Besides, Coursera has a "work from anywhere" policy, which allows employees to work remotely and not be forced to return to the office. This policy has helped the company tap into global talent and grow their India workforce from 50 people to 300 people. He said that Coursera is striving to have a diverse workforce and the best talent in the industry.

He said, “What we do at Coursera is we have a policy that we call ‘work from anywhere’. We have offices, but we don't force people to come back. One of the things that allows us to do is hire people anywhere in the world.”

He added, “I think in order to really tap into the global talent pool, forcing people to come to an office limits your choices. It also has a much harder impact on women, especially women with children. So we want to have a more diverse workforce, we want to find the best talent in the world and so we are really committed to work from anywhere.”

The edtech sector saw a rapid growth during the course of the COVID-19 pandemic but is going through course corrections now. The edtech sector in China has seen a major structural change in policy and Coursera is adapting to this new world of hybrid learning and work.

He said, “Now what we are seeing is a lot more embracing of hybrid learning, and hybrid work. And so we are seeing though, that skills are as important as ever, I think, with AI is going to change even faster and online is going to be important.”

While profitability is important, Coursera is also keeping its focus on growth and has enough cash reserves to sustain them, he said, adding that with $800 million in cash reserves, the company is not worried about running out of cash.

He said, “The path to profitability is a bit more important, but ultimately is about cash, reserves and burn rate.”