People from all over the world visit Google every day to learn something new. Our products have always aimed to assist, whether it be by watching a graphic design video on YouTube or by asking Gemini to assist with the creation of a customized study guide. Technology has the potential to be an effective learning tool, but we are also aware that real comprehension requires more than a single answer. Learning science has learned that people learn best when they actively engage with the information they are learning. This principle is at the heart of our work. In close partnership with educators, students, and pedagogical experts, we developed LearnLM, a family of models fine-tuned for learning and grounded in educational research. Today, with those capabilities infused in Gemini, we’re introducing Guided Learning—a new experience designed to act as a personal learning companion.
Going beyond the answer with Guided Learning
Through probing and open-ended questions that elicit discussion and provide an opportunity to delve deeper into a topic, Guided Learning encourages participation. The aim is to help you build a deep understanding instead of just getting answers. Guided Learning helps you learn by breaking down problems step by step and tailoring explanations to your needs. By focusing on the process rather than just the answer, Guided Learning provides rich, multimodal responses such as images, diagrams, videos, and interactive quizzes that can assist you in developing and testing your knowledge. Whether you’re preparing for an exam about enzymes, starting the first draft of a paper on the importance of bee populations in supporting our food systems, or exploring your passion for photography, Guided Learning is a collaborative thinking partner that helps you get it — each step of the way.
developed in collaboration with experts and students Years of research and collaboration with educators, pedagogical experts, and students form the basis of Guided Learning. We started with a fundamental inquiry: how could AI support responsible learning? We formed a cross-disciplinary group of AI specialists, neuroscientists, and cognitive scientists in 2022. Working closely with external learning experts, we found that simply improving prompting wasn’t enough to create a meaningful learning tool.
This insight led to the creation of LearnLM, so we could infuse learning science into our foundational models. We added these features to Gemini 2.5 earlier this year, making it the best learning model in the world. Guided Learning can thus meet students where they are and assist them in reaching their goals. Learners told us that they want to be able to go from quick answers to deep understanding, but don’t always know how to. They also valued having a safe place to ask any question they might have. We designed Guided Learning to help with this by creating a conversational, judgment-free space for anyone to explore topics in an enjoyable way at their own pace, putting the power of a great learning experience in their own hands.
Based on the fundamental idea that real learning is an active, constructive process, we collaborated with educators to design Guided Learning to be a partner in their teaching. It encourages students to move beyond answers and develop their own thinking by guiding them with questions that foster critical thought. We created a dedicated link that educators can either share with students or post directly in Google Classroom to make it simple for them to implement this strategy in their classrooms. Guided Learning is an important step on our path to assisting everyone worldwide in learning anything. Additionally, we acknowledge that there is a shared responsibility to ensure that AI truly benefits all learners on the road ahead. We look forward to continued partnership, research and feedback to help make Guided Learning as helpful as possible for learners everywhere.
