Although China has made great progress in narrowing the education gap, problems such as the imbalance of high-quality education resources between urban and rural areas still exist. At Baishaping Primary School, where many students struggle to make progress in subjects such as mathematics and reading and writing, the school's teaching staff has received support from an emerging educational artificial intelligence platform.
To identify gaps in students’ knowledge, edtech company Squirrel AI Learning Center tests students with an AI-based adaptive learning system that creates personalized lessons with the most appropriate learning materials for each student.
Unlike tools like ChatGPT that are based on large language models, Squirrel AI’s system is called a Large Action Model (LAM). It combines adaptive AI, which can learn and adapt to new data, with education-specific multimodal models that can process a variety of inputs, including text, images, and videos.
The company works with teachers to break down subjects into thousands of “knowledge points” in order to identify gaps in students’ understanding as accurately as possible. “We use AI algorithms to imitate the best teachers in the world,” explains Squirrel AI founder Li Haoyang. “So that every student in the world can receive equal education and receive personalized tutoring. “I think AI can greatly change education,” Li Haoyang continues. “The human brain could be 10 times smarter than it is now.” After just one month of using the system, students at Baishaping Primary School saw significant improvements in their grades, engagement, and confidence.
Founded just a decade ago, Squirrel AI now has more than 2,000 learning centers in 1,500 cities and countries, with more than 24 million registered students. The company has also provided 10 million free accounts to some of China's poorest families.
The development of Squirrel AI heralds the booming development of AI education in China and around the world. China is estimated to have invested billions of dollars in this field, leading the way. Globally, annual spending on AI and VR in education is expected to soar from $1.8 billion in 2018 to $12.6 billion in 2025.
According to the forum report "Shaping the Future of Learning: The Role of AI in Education 4.0", AI and other emerging technologies have the opportunity to help us address the growing global education gap.
UNESCO estimates that by 2030, an additional 44 million teachers will be needed to ensure inclusive and equitable education. Aiming at the 250 million out-of-school children who are currently out of school, AI tutors can help generate learning materials tailored to the specific needs and abilities of students around the world, support the existing teaching workforce, and ensure that teachers become a "future-oriented" profession.
