Hey everyone! I really like how websites like Brilliant try to teach in an interactive way. But it's like $160 (or more depending on the region) a year so I've been making a free one.

It's called OpenAha. right now there's 140+ courses and 1000+ lessons in math, physics and chemistry. no account or ads.

A few to try if you only have a minute:

This project is mostly implemented with claude: I planned every course, then wrote the lessons with AI. so far only about one third of the pages have been carefully reviewed by a person. That's why I'd really like people to poke at it. If a lesson is confusing or sth's wrong, make a PR or hit the flag button in the lessons. Also feel free to contribute on github to make this even better.

code: https://github.com/open-aha/open-aha.github.io


Edit, to clear something up: OpenAha isn't affiliated with Brilliant and doesn't use any of their content. I don't even have a Brilliant account. Brilliant just uses the style of learning I liked (try things first, explanation after). every lesson was written for this project, and we're improving it as an open source community.

And yes it's not finished, there will be mistakes. That's what the flag button on every step is for, every report gets fixed in public on github

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[–] 32 points 2 days ago (29 children)

First off: $160 a year for education (about $13 a month) is a steal. I'm not sure why this needs to exist.

Second: ignoring the ethical issues with using Claude so glibly, who is reviewing these lessons for accuracy? Who is making new lessons? Part of Brilliant's deal is having actual subject experts who are at least reviewing the lessons. No AI model is a replacement for that expertise. You can't crowdsource that expertise ad hoc, either (the people who use it are the ones learning from it, after all).

Are you just going to hope Claude can clone some facsimile forever?

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  • [–] 60 points 2 days ago

    First off: $160 a year for education (about $13 a month) is a steal. I'm not sure why this needs to exist.

    First off, It being a "steal" for you is not same for everyone els

    Second, not everyone around the world can pay for these. Payment processors, their monopoly and shenanigans aside, paying online is not a universal thing and we should stop treating it like it is.

    I fully agree with the slop arguments.

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  • [–] 25 points 2 days ago (3 children)

    do you think everyone lives at the expense of the global south like you? 160 is a fucking lot for a lot of people.

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  • [+] -3 points 2 days ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 child)
  • [–] 7 points 1 day ago

    This software isn't free. It has a cost. Did you think using the tools provided by billionaires was a gift from them?

    Also, it's hilarious that you think I'm bullying OP. Where in my original comment did I say, "No, don't use this"? I intentionally skipped over my ethical concerns, because OP is likely going to use it anyway.

    They're providing educational content. You can't just replace the knowledge of experts creating and checking lesson material with AI and hope for the best; that's how you end up teaching people wrong information.

    Y'all pro-AI goobers are so lost in the sauce, you can't even take a critique.

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  • [–] [S] -1 points 2 days ago (1 child)

    Fair questions. for you $13/month is fine, but I personally remember that I didn't wanna spend this much money years ago when I needed it.

    on accuracy: right now it's me going through lessons plus anyone who hits the flag button, and every fix is public on github. I'm not going to pretend that's the same as a team of experts, it's honestly the weak spot and why I posted here. if you know a subject well and want to check a course, I'd really appreciate it. Together we can make this much better that Brilliant :)

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  • [–] 6 points 1 day ago

    $13/mo can be a lot for people, that's true. There's certainly a subset where they simply don't have that extra. I suspect that subset is fewer than people might imagine, but I honestly would rather people have accessible education than not.

    For the second part, I think it's a hard ask for experts to contribute in that way, but hey, people spend their hobby time working on Linux and other OSS, so who knows?

    I also have ethical issues with the use of Claude itself (as well as other tools/platforms provided by billionaires), but I think that's beyond the scope of your original questions.

    There are other ML models made from scratch by universities and experts which aren't beholden to shareholders (and might not be accessible by the public, yet), so if you are determined to continue using AI in this way, keep an eye out for potentially better alternatives.

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  • [+] -10 points 2 days ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (9 children)
  • [–] 6 points 1 day ago (2 children)

    Your AI cannot beat my source of information; there is literally all information that has ever and will ever exist. No human can create anything nearly as advanced as my source of information

    My source of information is picking a random book from the library of babel

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  • [–] 7 points 1 day ago

    There's petabytes of data there dude

    The fact that you think that AI has a database of information from which it pulls demonstrates that you have no idea how it works. And you think we're the blind ones lmao

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  • [–] 7 points 1 day ago (4 children)

    As a PhD candidate, you are a doofus. An LLM cannot answer any question regarding my field with any degree of accuracy. Believing that LLMs are PhD level already speaks more to your intellect than LLMs.

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  • [+] -1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (3 children)
  • [–] 5 points 1 day ago* (1 child)

    As a PhD year 2 I assure you they work, you freaking removed. I study computer science btw.

    A PhD second year in October is someone who took one year of courses quite similar to undergraduate work, lol. As a candidate, someone who has actually done work (prelims, language work, dissertation writing, fieldwork, etc.) beyond taking classes, this is nonsense.

    I assure you they work, you freaking removed.

    This statement does not make any sense and further proves my first point.

    I study computer science btw.

    Ahh, that explains it.

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  • [+] -11 points 2 days ago (8 children)

    I thought it was weird there wasn’t a negative Nancy(s) in a thread that has any mention of AI. It’s now become a disease to hate on anything AI, even if it was good.

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  • [–] 24 points 2 days ago (7 children)

    It's weird that people are so positive towards AI, even when it's used to generate something with no understanding of the material. It's now become a disease to be accepting of anything AI, even if it uses the very thing our oppressors want us to use.

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  • [+] -20 points 2 days ago (6 children)

    😂 the same tired and boring Reddit cliche. Most of you who “hate” it use it religiously, but sitting out here virtue signaling. Gtfo.

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  • [+] -1 points 2 days ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (3 children)