AI plays vital role in education equity: Industry leader

Liu Chang, founder and CEO of 17Edtech, a leading online education startup, delivers a speech during the 2018 National Basic Education Forum held on Nov 4, 2018. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Advanced technologies, including artificial intelligence, are making high-quality education accessible for students across the nation, according to an industry player. 

Liu Chang, founder and CEO of 17Edtech, a leading online education startup, told China Daily in an interview that AI plays a vital role in promoting the country's education equity. 

"AI is totally changing how students learn and how teachers teach in public schools and is making education more equal for individuals," he said. 

He spoke at the 2018 National Basic Education Forum, where he delivered a theme speech on how to make learning a good experience. 

Liu's comments came after China called for more effort to develop the new generation of AI, to inject a fresh driving force into the country's high-quality economic growth. 

Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, said that accelerating the development of new-generation AI is a strategic issue, key for China to seize the opportunities in the new round of technological revolution and industrial transformation. 

AI should be used in areas such as education, health, sports, housing and transportation, Xi noted. 

The country aims to grow the country's core AI industries to over 150 billion yuan ($22.15 billion) by 2020, 400 billion yuan by 2025, and 1 trillion yuan by 2030.

"As an innovative online education company, 17Edtech is trying to make homework online and personalized," Liu said.

Visitors try 17Edtech's latest online learning product on Nov 4, 2018.[Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Liu pointed out that although different students have different learning levels, homework by the same class or even grade is always consistent, which means some students are doing unnecessary exercises, and other students might feel the tasks are too complicated to finish.

"Through AI, we will analyze students' mistakes and then automatically prepare personalized homework for them, which leaves out some knowledge that kids already grasp," he said.

By the end of September, more than 71 million registered users had used the company's products; among them, student users amounted to over 47 million.

On the other hand, AI helps to promote high-quality resources to more cities across the nation, especially for third and fourth-tier cities, Liu noted.

The Beijing-based startup is offering online high-quality teaching materials, which were developed by experienced teachers in cities, for teachers in remote areas.

"Such online educational resources will improve the teaching methods of these teachers, and furthermore, bring benefits to students from remote areas," Liu added.

"The future trend of homework should be a combination of online and offline," Liu said. "The integration of AI in the education segment will surely have a more profound impact in the future."