U.S. News Best Leaders
What AI Can and Can't Do in the Classroom, with Sal Khan
Not that long ago, the best education was often done one-on-one — a tutor who could guide a student at their own pace and respond to their individual needs. When we introduced mass public education, we often traded that personalization for scale: classes of 30 students with one teacher moving at a set pace whether or not the last concept landed. Can technology give back what we gave up? In this episode of the Best Leaders Podcast from U.S. News & World Report, U.S. News Executive Chairman and CEO Eric Gertler sits down with Sal Khan, founder and CEO of Khan Academy. What began as Khan tutoring his cousin over an online instant messaging platform is now a nonprofit with more than 200 million registered users across the world and working with more than 600 school districts. Khan explains why he turned down venture capital to build the organization as a nonprofit, what the results actually look like in schools like those in Newark, New Jersey — where students are posting three times the growth compared to the rest of the state — and why he believes college is becoming unaffordable for too many people. He also shares the career advice he gives young people: pay your dues, but carve out space to “fiddle” — and if you find something that matters, make it “unkillable.” Learn more: U.S. News Best Leaders: https://www.usnews.com/news/best-leaders Sal Khan’s U.S. News Best Leaders profile: https://www.usnews.com/news/leaders/articles/best-leaders-2025-sal-khan More from U.S. News & World Report: https://www.usnews.com/
