Napster Is Back, and It Wants to Digitally Clone Teachers
wired ·
Napster, once infamous for disrupting the music industry, has pivoted from music streaming to artificial intelligence and is entering education through a partnership with Dubai-based Gems Education. The partnership will explore AI agents, digital personas, gamified learning, AI-assisted content creation, and classroom simulations, beginning at the Gems School of Research and Innovation. One proposed application is an online digital twin trained on a teacher’s materials, courses, and papers, allowing students to ask questions outside class while giving teachers insight into areas where students need help. Napster’s Middle East and Africa CEO, Samuel Huber, says the technology is intended to augment educators rather than replace them and to preserve the human relationship at the center of education. Huber says student data will remain in the country or on clients’ own servers where required, and will not be used to train Napster’s AI models, although concerns remain about job losses and whether AI avatars can deliver meaningful educational benefits. Napster is establishing a Dubai regional hub and is working with Kameha Ventures, G42, Lenovo, and Detasad as it seeks to support the UAE’s AI ambitions and promote local data infrastructure. The company plans to expand its regional team from about 20 people to roughly 500 by 2030.
wired