About SocratesXR

What we do:

Students everywhere are using AI. Almost nobody is teaching them how. 

SocratesXR teaches high school and college students how to think alongside AI instead of letting it think for them. Students build a personalized AI Tutor over six modules, grounded in the Socratic method, and walk away with a real, verifiable credential — something they can put on an application, a resume, or a LinkedIn profile. 

SocratesXR is self-funded and independently built, with no interest in gamified shortcuts. Just a course meant to actually work.

Who we are:

Jesse Ackles is the founder of SocratesXR. He studied English at the University of Michigan and earned an MA in Applied Linguistics/TESOL from the University of Illinois Chicago, building a foundation in both narrative craft and precise communication. 

Over the past 15+ years, he has moved between college classrooms, legal advocacy, and publishing — teaching writing, rhetoric, and intensive ESL courses; running a legal nonprofit devoted to protecting debtors; and working as a professional editor. He later led a team of linguists and quality specialists auditing AI training data, giving him a direct, firsthand view of how these systems actually work. He built SocratesXR after seeing how unprepared students, educators, and institutions were for AI's presence in the classroom. 

He's based in San Francisco — and committed to reclaiming the em dash.