Software:Squirrel AI
Squirrel AI is a Chinese online education company. It is the first large scale AI-powered adaptive education provider in China [1]
Methodology
Squirrel uses artificial intelligence to tailor lesson plans to each individual student.[1] Chinese researchers have access to the world's largest student databases, which are used to train AI's.[1]
Squirrel works with excellent teachers to identify the most granular possible concepts (“knowledge points”) for a course in order to precisely target learning gaps. For example, middle school mathematics is broken into over 10,000 points such as rational numbers, the properties of a triangle, and the Pythagorean theorem. Each point is linked to related items, forming a "knowledge graph". Each knowledge point is addressed by videos, examples and practice problems. A textbook might address 3,000 points; ALEKS, another adaptive learning platform, uses 1,000. [1]
Each student begins with a diagnostic test to identify where to begin the learning. The system continues to refine its graph as more students proceed. Learning is not student-directed. The system decides the order of topics.
History
The company was founded in 2014 by Derek Li.[1]
By 2019 it had opened 2,000 learning centers in 200 cities and registered over a million students. It intended to open 2,000 additional centers by 2020.[1]
In 2019 the company opened a research lab in a partnership with Carnegie Mellon University. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative highlighted AI as an important resource for online education. In Rewiring Education, Apple's vice president of education John Couch noted Squirrel AI's success.[1]
As of 2019, the company had raised over $180 million in funding and in 2018 it surpassed $1 billion in valuation.[1]
In 2019 Squirrel AI won the GITEX 2019 Best Education Technology Award.[2]
In 2021 Squirrel AI and AAAI awarded the first $1 million prize for the AAAI Squirrel AI Award for Artificial Intelligence for the Benefit of Humanity to Regina Barzilay for her work developing machine learning models to address drug synthesis and early-stage breast cancer diagnosis.[3]
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 Hao, Karen (August 2, 2019). "China has started a grand experiment in AI education. It could reshape how the world learns." (in en-US). https://www.technologyreview.com/s/614057/china-squirrel-has-started-a-grand-experiment-in-ai-education-it-could-reshape-how-the/.
- ↑ Learning, Yixue Squirrel AI (2019-10-23). "Squirrel AI Learning Won the GITEX 2019 Best Education Technology Award". http://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2019/10/23/1934306/0/en/Squirrel-AI-Learning-Won-the-GITEX-2019-Best-Education-Technology-Award.html.
- ↑ "Regina Barzilay wins $1M Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence Squirrel AI award". https://news.mit.edu/2020/regina-barzilay-wins-aaai-squirrel-ai-award-artificial-intelligence-0923.
External links
- Chua, Kong Ho (July 15, 2019). "AI unicorn Squirrel targets foreign markets with Mandarin, maths lessons" (in en). https://www.scmp.com/tech/start-ups/article/3018297/chinese-education-unicorn-squirrel-ai-targets-foreign-markets-plans.
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