I've been teaching 100,000 fake students for 2 weeks.

and used them to build the best AP prep system in the world.

I took Qwen 3 8B models and gave them simulated human memory.

Now every night thousands of simulated students start with zero knowledge of the social sciences.… pic.twitter.com/7GHIQ7n6l3

— Austin Way (@AustinA_Way) March 14, 2026

An interesting use case for AI agents to improve curriculum and content: using a bunch of simulated “dumb” student agents who cannot rely on any latent knowledge about the subject (e.g., social sciences), and instead only use information provided by the teacher model before taking a real test. The teacher then evaluates the results, identifies areas of weakness, re-strategizes the content, and iterates.

Average scores improved from 3 (45th percentile on the test) to 4.43 (80th percentile) in 2 weeks (don’t have the actual numbers to validate this, but feels like a very large effect size - 2 sigma??) . Combined with large population models, this approach could open up an interesting way to test products and services, and improve curriculum or training before releasing it into the wild - a kind of training dojo for edtech products.

Outside of education, I’m imagining running marketing campaigns on population-scale personas to identify ideal PMF or ICPs or testing how people would react to policies. Very exciting!

Indian education system is facing an unexpected second-order consequence of the Iran - Israel conflict. Following attacks on its leadership and military, Iran has warned that it will target all ships moving through the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow sea corridor - 40 km wide at it’s narrowest point, through which 20% of the global oil and gas shipments pass everyday. Iran has been preparing all its life for this exact moment. It already blew up 2-3 ships, making good on its promise. It has huge implications for India. We import 55% of LPG from 4 countries - Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, and Kuwait. These countries need ships carrying their LPG to pass through the Strait of Hormuz - there is no other way. This has already begun creating LPG shortages across India. The Government is now forced to prioritize domestic supply (for use in homes) versus commercial gas supply. However, commercial gas is not just used in industries or restaurant kitchens, but also used by school and college kitchens to cook daily meals. The effects are already visible - several hostels and paying guest accommodations have started cutting back on rotis, extra paneer and chicken, elite schools like The Shri Ram schoool in Gurgaon have started warning parents they may soon be unable to serve any food. The real concern,however, is the 8 crore students in Government Schools who depend on meals served through the PM Poshan Scheme(erstwhile MidDay Meal Scheme). Many states have already flagged the potential for disruption (here, here, and here). For many children, these meals are the only reliable source of nutrition and any shortages would affect learning directly as a result of falling attendance.

The silver lining to this episode is that Iran has granted concessions to Indian vessels travelling through Hormuz. However, given the fragile supply-chain, the Government should prioritize LPG allocation for institutional kitchens, especially those serving schools and colleges. On a side note - I would recommend everyone just hold off any birthday parties. Disruptions in the gulf logistics also means that Qatar which also produces 20% of the world’s supply of Helium, has stopped shipping it!