Providing high-quality education with AI technology

Artificial intelligence technology has been developing explosively, showing great potential in the field of education, and the integration of AI+ education has become a trend from a global perspective, experts noted on Friday during the ongoing 7th China International Import Expo.

As part of the CIIE Shanghai Events and Conferences, the “Innovation and Development of AI+Education of the Global Perspective” Forum was held.

The forum gathered experts and representatives from enterprises in the field of education and artificial intelligence to discuss the application prospects of AI in the field of education and to promote the digital transformation of the education industry.

“AI brings new opportunities to private education, and private schools should actively embrace it,” said Gao Deyi, director of Shanghai Association for Non-Government Education which hosted the forum. “We should work together to ensure its healthy development and promote high-quality development of education.”

Wei Chen, CEO of TAL Education Group, shared the group’s advances in the field of AI+ education in the past two years.

“The application of AI in educational scenarios has progressed very quickly in recent years,” said Wei.

“For example, small class courses can achieve personalization and high quality, but it is difficult to scale up; education products that can be scaled up, while on the other hand, inevitably have to sacrifice personalization. In the past two years, the rapid development of generative AI models has given us new opportunities and a glimmer of hope.

“We hope to promote the continuous evolution and long-term development of the industry through technology and content innovation, expanding from ‘education’ to ‘lifelong growth’ and bringing incremental value to the entire society.”

The group has been investing in AI research and development to solve an “impossible triangle” in the field of education – achieving personalization, high quality, and large scale at the same time.

Last year, it launched a large model, which was one of the first batch of educational large models approved in China. It has five comprehensive capabilities – problem-solving, dialogue, grading, explanation and recommendation – covering multiple disciplines.

Learning machines are one of the most important carriers for the implementation of the large model because smart hardware can link content, AI, and user data in a closed loop, allowing AI capabilities to be better utilized, explained Wei.

“For students, AI has made their studying experience more relaxed, while for parents, AI grading, AI dictation, and other tool applications can greatly reduce the time and learning costs of tutoring homework, making the family atmosphere more relaxed after school,” she added. “AI+education is not just the future, but has become the daily life of our users.”

In recent years, China’s education system has achieved significant achievements, with the gross enrollment rate of higher education reaching 60.2 percent, becoming a country with mass higher education. However, it faces challenges such as the difficulty of graduates in finding employment and employers in finding suitable talents, said Hu Wei, a consultant to the Shanghai Municipal People’s Government.

“I believe the development of artificial intelligence has entered an iterative stage, and the application of multimodal technologies such as ChatGPT will subvert traditional education models,” he said.

“Talent cultivation should have a flexible adaptation mechanism, and cross-disciplinary learning should break disciplinary barrier, emphasizing the combination of theory and practice through various learning methods and innovation talent cultivation should focus on non-intellectual factors and be closely combined with the industry,” he said.