Last week, two things happened in the education field, which caused a lot of attention.
On October 24, Doushen Education announced that the company would establish a joint venture with Zhipu Huazhang (hereinafter referred to as Zhipu ) to focus on the technology research and development and sales of AI education products; later on October 26, "Beijing Education Field "Artificial Intelligence Application Guide (2024)" was released, clarifying the application specifications of artificial intelligence in the field of education, and guiding schools, teachers and students to carry out application practices in a safe and orderly manner.
The former is an "alliance" between enterprises, and the latter is a "clarity" at the policy level. The two independent events have strengthened the status and role of artificial intelligence in education and teaching from different dimensions, which will bring great changes to the entire education industry and related industries. What kind of impact will it have?
What does Zhipu’s “cross-border” education focus on?
In the field of artificial intelligence, Zhipu can be described as a "big name". This AI star company founded in 2019 is one of the first domestic companies to enter the large-scale model track.
In just a few years, Zhipu has received investment from major Internet companies such as Alibaba, Tencent, Meituan, and Xiaomi, as well as leading PEs such as Sequoia, Hillhouse, Legend, and Shunwei, and has been hailed as the "New AI Four Little Dragons" in the industry. "The Chinese company closest to OpenAI".
In addition to its technical strength, Zhipu can also be regarded as the "most aggressive" AI investment institution in the industry, and has been racing to gain land in recent years.
According to statistics from relevant institutions, starting from 2023, Zhipu AI has invested in 15 projects, and has made 8 investments as of July this year. Such investment intensity even exceeds that of some first-tier institutions. From the perspective of specific investment directions, Zhipu has a wide range of interests in the field of AI, covering not only high-tech industries such as chips, medical care, automobiles, and manufacturing, but also traditional fields such as cultural tourism, finance, and marketing.
However, in the field of education, compared with the clear scoring standards and answers in subjects such as mathematics, physics, and chemistry, Chinese education not only involves the accuracy of knowledge data, but also involves many subjective non-standard factors such as understanding ability, expression ability, and emotional interaction. Therefore, Chinese education The application of AI large models in the Internet has higher requirements for the model to handle complex and diverse data, the difficulty of model training, as well as adaptability and flexibility.
Just imagine, "The clouds are gone and the rain is falling, and the colors are shining brightly. The sunset and the solitary swans are flying together, and the autumn water is the same color as the sky." What is the meaning of these two popular poems? For students who lack life experience, maybe Often we can only stay at the literal understanding, and parent guidance may often feel inadequate due to the lack of relevant background and knowledge. This is one of the many pain points that plague students and parents in current Chinese learning.
The cooperation between Doushen and Zhipu is precisely to solve the industry problems and pain points of AI+ education technology. Zhipu Huazhang's research breakthroughs in AI large model technology provide technical support to DouShen Education, while DouShen Education provides rich user data and market experience, and the two sides complement each other's strengths. Zhipu has industry-leading large-scale model development and training capabilities, while DouShen has seventeen years of experience in Chinese education and has successful practices in the field of AI education.
Specifically, Doushen Education relies on its independently developed Jiuxiao content production platform and its in-depth application of AI agent technology and speech algorithms to create "super-anthropomorphic" famous teachers who can accompany children's growth.
It can be seen that the cooperation between Zhipu and Doushen will have the opportunity to elevate the terminal-model integrated business AI education products to a higher level.
“AI + Education” accelerates the pace of educational innovation
The education industry relies heavily on "experience-based teaching". Whether it is a school or a training institution, famous teacher resources, innovative teaching methods, personalized learning plans, etc. are all scarce resources, which also restrict the entire industry from achieving innovative breakthroughs in a deeper direction.
With the development and application of AI technology, innovative applications such as intelligent teaching assistance, personalized learning path recommendations, and accurate learning effect assessment have not only improved learning efficiency, but also greatly enriched teaching methods and models. "It can be foreseen that in the next few years, the cognitive and professional level of AI in the field of education will be comparable to that of university professors, PhDs, graduate students, etc." Huang Tiejun, chairman of the Beijing Zhiyuan Artificial Intelligence Research Institute, once told the media said during the interview.
In March this year, the Ministry of Education officially launched the artificial intelligence-empowered education action and launched a series of specific measures, including the "AI Learning Column", the upgrade of the national smart education public service platform, the application demonstration of large-scale artificial intelligence models in the education system, and the establishment of an international digital education platform. Communication platform, etc. On August 3, the State Council issued the "Opinions of the State Council on Promoting the High-Quality Development of Service Consumption", further emphasizing the importance of digital education as a new consumption model and injecting new momentum into the efficient and orderly development of the AI education industry.
It can be said that under the active guidance of national policies, the industrialization process of AI education has accelerated significantly, and the capital market's perception of the education industry has also quietly changed.
At the 2024 Yunqi Conference in September this year, AI education service provider Precision Science announced the successful completion of a new round of financing. Alibaba’s total investment in Precision Science has reached approximately 400 million yuan; TAL’s latest financial report shows that in the second quarter ( Revenue from June 1 to August 31, 2024 was US$619.4 million, a year-on-year increase of 50.4%. Net profit was US$57.4 million, a year-on-year increase of 51.5%; Doushen Education achieved operating income of 227 million yuan in the third quarter of 2024, a year-on-year increase of 28.93%, and net profit attributable to shareholders of the listed company was 41.7797 million yuan, a significant year-on-year increase of 191.98% .
The national policy orientation is clear and the capital market continues to pay attention. Under the exploration and practice of more and more "wisdom spectrum" and "bean gods", "AI + education" is reshaping the new look of the education industry at an unprecedented speed. Intelligent Transformation into education and individualization has become a general trend, which may become a new breakthrough in promoting educational equity and quality improvement, and will also accelerate the construction of a new model of educational innovation.