On the first day of school in 2019, a smart robot teacher greeted students at the Liaozi Township First Central Primary School in Chengkou County, Chongqing, located in the deep mountains. [Photo/Xinhua]

In recent years, the rapid development of artificial intelligence technology is profoundly changing the way people produce, live, and learn, promoting the intelligent era of human-machine collaboration, cross-border integration, and co-creation and sharing.

China attaches great importance to the profound impact of artificial intelligence on education and actively promotes the deep integration of artificial intelligence and education, promoting educational reform and innovation, and giving full play to the advantages of artificial intelligence. On the basis of approving platforms to be built by Alibaba Cloud, Tencent, iFLYTEK, and others, the Ministry of Science and Technology recently announced the construction of 10 national artificial intelligence open platforms based on Huawei, TAL Education Group, and Ping An Insurance, including basic hardware and software, smart education, and inclusive finance. These platforms will be constructed around major demands for artificial intelligence, promote industry openness and sharing, and help the growth of small and medium-sized enterprises, making them a leading force in China's artificial intelligence technology innovation and industrial ecosystem development.

How is the artificial intelligence platform for smart education built? Reporters recently interviewed experts. The experts stated that the national open innovation platform for smart education will carry, aggregate, and lead the exploration and practice of the entire industry and even the whole society in the deep integration of artificial intelligence and education. This platform will promote "more fair and quality education," helping with the modernization of education.

Enterprise leadership and industry collaboration, the construction of the national new generation artificial intelligence open innovation platform is timely

To fully tap the leading role of the industry-leading enterprises in artificial intelligence research, and to promote the technological innovation and industrial development of artificial intelligence in China, the Ministry of Science and Technology has launched the construction of the national new generation artificial intelligence open innovation platform.

On August 1, 2019, the Ministry of Science and Technology issued the "Guidelines for the Construction of the National New Generation Artificial Intelligence Open Innovation Platform," which provides guidance for further promoting the deep integration of artificial intelligence and the real economy, promoting the construction of the national new generation artificial intelligence open innovation platform, and promoting the technological innovation and industrial development of artificial intelligence in China.

Huang Ronghuai, a professor at Beijing Normal University and co-dean of the Smart Learning Research Institute, stated that the artificial intelligence education platform can achieve cross-regional co-construction and sharing of high-quality educational resources, providing students in impoverished areas with the opportunity to receive high-quality education. This platform will effectively promote "more fair and quality education" and is expected to drive educational reform and innovation. "Smart education" based on artificial intelligence is one of the typical forms of future education. Educational reform calls for "smart education" development, which is beneficial for education to keep pace with the times, solve current bottlenecks in educational reform, and promote systemic changes in education.

The "Guidelines for the Construction of the National New Generation Artificial Intelligence Open Innovation Platform" clearly states that the future emphasis of the open innovation platform will be led by leading enterprises in the artificial intelligence industry, encouraging joint participation in the construction of research institutions, and universities to provide intellectual and technical support. The open innovation platform should focus on the construction of specific fields related to the key tasks in the "New Generation Artificial Intelligence Development Plan." In principle, each specific sub-field should have a national new generation artificial intelligence open innovation platform, with clear distinctions and emphasis on different open innovation platforms in different sub-fields.

Huang Yan, Chief Technology Officer and President of the Open Platform Business Unit of TAL Education Group, stated that the construction of the national open innovation platform for smart education will address the needs of educational reform, innovation, and the development of the education industry. It will provide comprehensive, full-process, and all-scenario smart education service support from technology, solutions, to industrial application. The platform will be divided into three parts: smart education technology empowerment platform, smart education solution open platform, and smart education industry open platform. The platform construction will focus on the establishment of open standards for the smart education industry, provide artificial intelligence capabilities for all scenarios in education, provide artificial intelligence solutions for the entire process of education, and provide industrial applications for the entire education cycle. This will help in the transformation and upgrading of the education industry.

The growing market and gradually matured technology make the future application of artificial intelligence education platform promising

To complement the construction of the national artificial intelligence open innovation platform for smart education, the Ministry of Science and Technology's New Generation Artificial Intelligence Development Research Center and others have released the "Intelligent Education Innovation Application Development Report."

The report shows that the current smart education market in China is rapidly growing, with a scale exceeding 500 billion yuan. Intelligent applications have fully covered the six major scenarios of the education industry, including preparation, teaching, coaching, exams, evaluation, and management. The main product forms include smart correction, photo-based question searching, smart assessment, smart question bank, graded reading, and adaptive learning. In the tool-oriented scenarios such as coaching and examinations, the application complexity of artificial intelligence technology is low, and applications such as photo-based question searching, graded reading, smart question bank, and exam diagnosis are highly matured commercial applications. In contrast, the adaptability and maturity of artificial intelligence technology in the evaluation and management stages are low and require a prolonged period of continuous exploration and accumulation. The service-oriented scenarios such as teaching and preparation might be the focus of the industry's next development. Once breakthroughs are made in knowledge graph and big data technologies, it will bring tremendous potential application value.

As a representative of smart education companies, TAL Education Group is cooperating with universities such as Beijing Normal University to vigorously promote the construction of the national open innovation platform for smart education.

Huang Yan believes that the platform will have a profound impact on the industry in four aspects: firstly, enhancing the basic support capabilities of smart education; secondly, expanding the coverage of high-quality educational resources to promote educational equity and improve educational quality; thirdly, improving the level and capabilities of educational resource services; finally, serving the industry itself and driving the development of related supporting industries. He stated that the national open innovation platform for smart education will promote the joint strengthening of theoretical, algorithmic, and basic hardware and software research of artificial intelligence in the education industry by the academic and industrial communities, providing high-quality services and support for the critical technological innovation in smart education in China.