An AI tool named after Albert Einstein (pictured) was taken down shortly after it was released.Credit: GK History Images/Alamy On 23 February, academics across the world took to social media to decry the death of education as we know it. The day before, a technology start-up company called Companion had released an artificial-intelligence platform that pledged to free students from tedious coursework. Such a statement might not seem controversial at a time when AI tools exist for nearly everything, if not for the fact that the program, called Einstein, promised on its website to do so much more. The company said that students could grant the tool access to their account on a virtual learning environment, such as Canvas. Once they did that, Einstein could watch lectures, read course material, participate in discussions, complete quizzes, and write and submit homework — all with minimal oversight by the student themselves.…