Last week, two events occurred in the education sector, causing quite a bit of attention.

On October 24, Dou Shen Education announced that the company will establish a joint venture with WiseStudy, focusing on the technological development and sales of AI education products; then on October 26, the "Beijing AI Application Guidelines in Education (2024)" were released, clarifying the application norms for AI in the education sector to guide schools, teachers, and students in the prudent and orderly conduct of application practices.

The former is an 'alliance' between companies, while the latter is a 'clarification' at the policy level. These two independent events strengthen the position and role of AI in education from different perspectives. What impact will this have on the entire education industry and related industries?

What did WiseStudy see in the 'cross-border' education field?

In the field of artificial intelligence, WiseStudy can be said to be quite famous. This AI star company, founded in 2019, is one of the earliest companies in China to enter the large-scale model race.

In just a few years, WiseStudy has received investments from internet giants such as Alibaba, Tencent, Meituan, Xiaomi, as well as top PE firms such as Sequoia, Hillhouse, Junlian, and IDG Capital. It is hailed in the industry as one of the 'New Four Little Dragons of AI' and the 'Chinese company closest to OpenAI'.

In addition to technical strength, Asia Vets can also be regarded as the 'most aggressive' AI investment institution in the industry, and has been expanding its presence in recent years.

According to statistics from relevant institutions, starting from 2023, Asia Vets has invested in 15 projects, and has made 8 moves as of July this year, surpassing some first-tier institutions in terms of investment intensity. In terms of specific investment directions, Asia Vets has a wide range of investments in the AI field, covering not only high-tech industries such as chips, medical, autos, and manufacturing, but also traditional sectors such as culture and tourism, finance, and marketing.

However, in the field of education, compared to the clear scoring standards and answers of subjects such as mathematics and science, Chinese language education not only involves the accuracy of knowledge data but also subjective non-standard factors such as understanding ability, expression ability, and emotional interaction. Therefore, the application of AI large models in Chinese language education has higher requirements for dealing with complex and diverse data, model training difficulty, as well as adaptability and flexibility.

Imagine "The clouds scatter, the rainbow colors the district. The sunset and the lonely goose fly together, the autumn water shares the same hue as the sky." What is the true meaning of these two popular poetic lines? For students lacking life experiences, they may often only stay at the literal understanding, while parents assisting in teaching may also feel powerless due to the lack of relevant background and knowledge. This is one of the many pain points in current Chinese language learning for students and parents.

The collaboration between Dou Shen and Asia Vets is aimed at solving the industry challenges and pain points of AI + education technology. Asia Vets' breakthrough in AI large model technology research provides technical support to Dou Shen Education, while Dou Shen Education provides rich user data and market experience, complementing each other's strengths. Asia Vets has leading capabilities in large model development and training in the industry, while Dou Shen has accumulated seventeen years of rich Chinese language education experience, and also has successful practice in AI education.

Specifically, Dou Shen Education relies on its independently developed Jiuxiao content production platform, as well as the deep application of its AI intelligent body technology and voice algorithms, to create 'super lifelike' teachers that can accompany children in their growth.

It can be seen that the cooperation between Asia vets and Dou Shen will have the opportunity to elevate the integrated AI education products to a higher level.

"AI+ education" is accelerating the pace of educational innovation.

The education industry highly relies on "experiential teaching", whether it is schools or training institutions, renowned teachers, innovative teaching methods, personalized learning plans, and so on are all scarce resources, also constraining the entire industry from achieving innovative breakthroughs in a more profound direction.

With the development and application of AI technology, innovative applications such as intelligent teaching assistance, personalized learning path recommendations, and precise learning effect evaluations not only improve learning efficiency but also greatly enrich teaching methods and modes. "It can be foreseen that in the coming years, the cognitive and professional levels manifested by AI in the education field can rival those of university professors, doctors, and graduate students." Huang Tiejun, Chairman of the Peking Smart Source Artificial Intelligence Research Institute, said in a media interview.

In March of this year, the Ministry of Education officially launched the AI Empowerment Education Action, introducing a series of specific measures, including the "AI Learning Column", the upgrading of the National Smart Education Public Service Platform, the demonstration of AI large models in the education system, and the establishment of an international exchange platform for digital education. On August 3, the State Council issued the "Opinions on Promoting the High-Quality Development of Service Consumption", further emphasizing the importance of digital education as a new consumption model, 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 significantly accelerated, and the recognition of the education industry by the capital markets is quietly changing.

At the 2024 Yunqi Conference in September this year, AI education service provider Jingxuan announced the successful completion of a new round of financing. Alibaba's total investment in Jingxuan has reached approximately 0.4 billion yuan; Tal Education's latest financial report shows that the revenue for the second quarter of 2024 (June 1 to August 31, 2024) was 0.6194 billion US dollars, a year-on-year increase of 50.4%. Net income was 57.4 million US dollars, a year-on-year increase of 51.5%; and Dou Shen Education achieved an operating income of 0.227 billion yuan in the third quarter of 2024, a year-on-year increase of 28.93%, with a net income attributable to listed company shareholders of 41.7797 million yuan, a substantial year-on-year increase of 191.98%.

With the clear guidance of national policies and the continuous attention of the capital markets, under the exploration and practices of more and more companies like Asia vets and Dou Shen, "AI+ education" is reshaping the new face of the education industry at an unprecedented speed. The trend towards intelligent and personalized transformation is becoming inevitable, which may become a new breakthrough in promoting education equity and quality improvement, and will also accelerate the construction of new models for educational innovation.