Heres Whats Next At The Explosive Intersection Of AI And On-Line Education – Forbes

Posted: October 20, 2019 at 10:32 pm

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Artificial Intelligence is poised to disrupt many industries, but education arena has not typically been at the forefront of such conversations. If it has been included at all, the narrative has been in a more abstract manner than actual application. And even though several companies such as Carnegie Learning and Content Technologies, Inc have taken either more adult learning approaches or those that are deeply rooted in tech, the space is still anyones game with new trends to be developed for Gen Z.

The industry is an important one not only for its ability to generate an entirely new level of learning but also because of the very real business opportunity in the space. Indeed, the artificial intelligence in education size is forecasted at a market size worth $6 billion dollars by 2024. Thus, the race is on now among companies that can consistently produce quality content with economical pricing supported by artificial intelligence and machine learning. While there are many startups entering the fray, an established company called UnfoldU has not only created a well-respected brand in India but is also now poised to bring it expertise to North America, the United Kingdom and Australia.

UnfoldU says that it the company is now nearing one million users per year and is currently in it fifth year of operation. The company began a successful business model by targeting middle class families which never had access to the online education but wanted it to supplement education in physical, traditional avenues. So founder Harish Bajaj actually decided to self-fund both the educational platform as well as the solid infrastructure that could support the Internet in India. Although Bajaj began his career in the marketing arena he was able to pivot and focused on hiring top tech developers in the region to convert his vision into reality. To finance the endeavor he borrowed funds from the people who believed in his business idea and invested his entire savings.

Once launched, the result was that the company began to see families use UnfoldU to either replace or supplement their childs educational needs. The business began to build over time because parents could actually track the growth of their childs formal educational in new ways, and they could see results.

UnfoldU is focusing on school education from first to twelfth grade, explains Bajaj. We are not providing any certificate courses or MOOC courses, we are only focused on primary and secondary school education, and we are now providing extension to the school studies by providing content which is backed with artificial intelligence and machine learning.

Student of Unfoldu supported by the power of AI

Bajaj says that young students in India are using this platform to enhance their studies with each users experience being personalized through such emerging tech capabilities. If a student is believed to be acquiring knowledge at a faster pace, the app automatically adjusts itself. If a student is taking time or has issues, the app also automatically adjusts itself and simplifies the course in an appropriate manner.

I started this journey from scratch, and in the early days, accumulating talent for developing quality online education content was very difficult, expensive and elusive. People have now started to realize the potential of the internet based education and in the coming few years it will be massively adopted, explains Bajaj.

Having overcome the hurdles successfully in this market, Bajaj is eager to move to additional territories and drive the brand as both an online school content provide and AI & ML technology company. The company has developed proprietary technology which focuses on the attitude and learning speed of a student. The codes are based on parameters such as learning speed and exam performance. However, Bajaj explains that such questions are neither built nor fetched from a common pool of questions, but instead created on the basis of several internal parameters that are more deeply tied to additional variables around behavior and cognitive responses. The additional competitive advantage in this system is that AI also informs parents about the performance via computer generated voice calls that actually the parents and share the feedback. The parents can then communicate with the AI which is then further integrated into the system.UnfoldUs focus is to eventually cross into the currently controversial realm of having AI can completely replace teachers to ensure a faster and more robust educational method.

Bajaj says that AI in education is beyond creating content. The real secret is using it to actually create smart content which is auto-generated. In the next 20-25 years, we may actually witness human brain directly being programmed, he adds.

In a twist the UnfoldU is also going to launch an IEO to take the company to the next level. The tokens will have real use case scenarios in that they can be used for buying courses. The company has already launched its whitepaper and will hit the markets next month. Tokens of the company are currently trading on BitLux OTC exchange. The additional funds are intended to help the company move deeper into its plans to mesh AR and VR with education to help its customers learn with greater impact and better retain information.

In 1980s faster computers were just a dream, now even the smartphones in our pockets are 50 times more powerful than the supercomputers of that era. Using smart education backed by artificial intelligence will become just as commonplace and advanced. We do not wish to replace teachers completely, but make quality education more accessible by those students who cannot afford it. Nothing can replace the human mind, but supporting it with advanced technology couldnt hurt.

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Heres Whats Next At The Explosive Intersection Of AI And On-Line Education - Forbes

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