Khanmigo Learns to Draw, With Help From Gemini

An AI tutor that can only talk has a real limitation, and any maths teacher can name it. Some ideas need a picture. Khan Academy's Khanmigo has spent its life explaining concepts in text, and for back-to-school 2026 it picked up a new skill: when it decides a visual would help, it can now generate an interactive diagram on the spot.

These are not stock images pulled from a library. Working through a geometry problem, the tutor can draw the shape being discussed. On a statistics question, it can produce a chart or a parallel coordinate plot, and students can move pieces of it around as part of the lesson. The diagram becomes something to poke at rather than just look at, which is closer to how a good teacher works at a whiteboard.

How it was built

The feature came out of a Google.org fellowship. Six Google engineers spent roughly six months embedded with Khan Academy's own team, and the nonprofit got a grant plus direct access to Google's Gemini models to make it work. Gemini's ability to generate and reason over visuals is what makes the on-the-fly diagrams possible.

Khan Academy also reworked its practice tool, and the design choice there is worth noting. Rather than letting the AI grade and assign freely, the new version keeps teachers in charge. They decide whether work is scored or unscored, and they get structured reports on how students did once an assignment is complete. It is a deliberately modest posture for an AI product, and a sensible one for a classroom.

The bigger race

Education has quietly become one of the most contested arenas in AI, because whoever teaches a generation of students earns a durable habit. Google is pressing its advantage through Gemini and partners like Khan Academy. Anthropic has gone at the same market from the teacher's side, opening Claude for Teachers to whole school districts. The pitches differ, but the target is the same desk. For students, the practical question is simpler and more familiar: does the tool actually help you understand the thing, or just hand you the answer? A tutor that draws you a diagram and asks you to adjust it is at least aiming at the right one.