Better then what for self-learning though? Better then textbooks? Better then an online course? Better then watching youtube videos from Khan academy, or just better then nothing at all as described some metrics which the AI companies came up with them selves?

I suspect it is the last one. This is a trillion dollar industry and if the AI companies claim this, then they should be able to to show it with quality research, they however have not, and the reason is that this is a lie. AI is not better then anything for self-learning. Go to the library and check out a chess book, go to r/trumpet, join a weekly meetup to practice you Spanish, etc. etc. all of these are vastly superior then AI.

You claim self-learning via is hustle free, perhaps you are right, however I suspect that there is no such thing as hustle free learning. If you want to learn something you have to use your brain, and you have to struggle. AI will just act like you got this, flatter you for a minute, and in the worst cases, you may start to believe the AI when it lies to you about how much you’ve learned.

I agree with the last part, however I disagree with the others. To learn something you can't just watch or just read, I personally try to do both, first watch to get a basic grasp, then read to get some of the finer details. It stimulates a bigger area of my brain and lets me remember it faster. AI comes in as a helper to this cycle, creating me a study plan letting me know what to focus on, finding me videos on the topic and sorting them on their success rates based on their comments and finding sources. It lets me ask it questions about parts i find difficult or don't comprehend fully. To go beyond it can create an hour long audio discussion about the topic, create flash cards for me to import to Anki, it can create video summaries for me, it can transcribe the videos and let me know which time mark is a topic i want to focus on is at. These are not lies these are self experience. I am a student too, you know.

>Better then textbooks? Better then an online course? Better then watching youtube videos from Khan academy, or just better then nothing at all as described some metrics which the AI companies came up with them selves?

The value of all of these self-learning routes has increased enormously due to existence of AI assistants. At least the way I do it now, I get the initial structure for a subject from YouTube/Udemy/textbooks and then fill out my personal comprehension gaps with the help of AI. You can even point AI to a specific material you're trying to grasp and usually it will rephrase a point you failed to get in a simpler language.

Previously, you'd need some trained person to explain to you something that led you to hit a roadblock. Now, the level of understanding you get easily beats most of the tutors in public schools or community colleges.