Squirrel AI unveiled at TechCrunch Disrupt, attracting overseas ventures to propose partnership
SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 19, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- On September 7th, local time, TechCrunch Disrupt, which gathered the world's top technology start-ups, technology elites and venture capitalists, concluded successfully in San Francisco, USA. Haoyang Li, founder of China's "AI + Education" leading enterprise Yixue Squirrel AI Learning, eloquently addressed the conference, attracting attention of guests from all over the world and a number of company representatives to propose cooperation intentions.
A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/e2041525-86f0-4715-9190-a6004ccc053c
Organized by TechCrunch, the largest technology media in the US, this year's TechCrunch Disrupt is the largest in history, attracting more than 1,200 start-ups from thirteen fields of technology including artificial intelligence (AI), virtual experience (AR/VR), biotechnology, blockchain, and FinTech and over 10,000 guests to be present. During the most anticipated venture contest, 21 start-ups took turns to take the stage, competing for the Disrupt Cup and the $100,000 prize. According to statistics, as of December last year, a total of 763 companies participated in the TechCrunch roadshow competition, whose total financing reaching $ 8.2 billion and 100 of whom having been successfully listed or acquired.
More than 100 heavyweights and big names, including Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, Zuckerberg's wife Priscilla Chan, Innovation Works Chairman Kai-fu Lee, Dropbox CEO Drew Houston, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, Goldman Sachs Group CFO Martin Chavez, were invited to the conference to discuss the cutting-edge topics of technology.
At the conference, Zuckerberg's wife Priscilla Chan pointed out that technology is a public resource. According to Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, the online taxi-hailing service will account for less than 50% of Uber's business in 10 years as Uber's long-term vision is to get rid of the dependence on passenger cars and place emphasis on pile-free bicycles, motorcycles and flying taxis. Martin Chavez, CFO of Goldman Sachs Group, clarified the media's report on Goldman Sachs' abandonment of the cryptocurrency trading desk and revealed that Goldman Sachs is developing a derivative for Bitcoin. Kai-fu Lee, Chairman of Innovation Works, indicated in his speech that China is beating the United States in the field of artificial intelligence.
"It is generally believed that the United States should dominate the AI market as it possesses an apparent advantage in the artificial intelligence researches. But in fact, China is catching up quickly. Just as Thomas Edison invented electricity, Americans invented artificial intelligence deep learning, and generously shared it with the world. China, a market with the largest amount of data, is really capitalizing on AI technology to create values for traditional enterprises, Internet companies and other fields," said Kai-Fu Lee at the conference. He also pointed out that China has a huge entrepreneurial ecosystem and most of the highest valued AI companies in the fields of computer vision, speech recognition and drones are Chinese companies. Besides, Chinese companies obtained nearly half of the venture capital investment in the AI industry. Chinese companies accounts for 43% of all AI companies around the world. The attention drew to the Chinese companies on this year's TechCrunch Disrupt seems to support his point of view.
Haoyang Li, founder of China's "AI + Education" leading enterprise Yixue Squirrel AI Learning, gave a speech on how artificial intelligence fundamentally changed the education industry, drawing great attention from founders of leading AI companies and venture capital executives worldwide.
Li pointed out the inefficiency of the current rigid education which greatly dampens the students' enthusiasm for learning. "It takes only a few minutes for some students to learn the same knowledge points and a whole class for others. And one may master some knowledge points quickly and others slow. But the current education system offers exactly the same content for all students, meaning 90% of which is a waste of time." The Squirrel AI system, on the other hand, can pinpoint the weak points in each student's knowledge and push the learning content in a targeted manner, encouraging the students to learn at the right time. "No two children should be placed in the same class. The Squirrel AI system can customize a completely different learning path for them to meet their individual needs," said Li. Moreover, Squirrel AI is capable of digging deep to the basics to help the students check their mastery of the most basic knowledge points in the knowledge system and close the knowledge gaps.
According to Haoyang Li, as the first K12 intelligent adaptive learning company in China, "Yixue Squirrel AI Learning" has made many industry leading achievements. For example, it carries out super-nano decomposition of knowledge points to pinpoint the students' weak points; it breaks up learning abilities and learning methods to help the students develop the habit of lifelong learning; it is equipped with the world's first non-related knowledge points association probability that allows the intelligent system to obtain more accurate judgments with a smaller number of test questions; it enables AI system to iterate through self-confrontation like AlphaGo Zero by simulating students and teachers. Then, Li demonstrated the remarkable effect of Squirrel AI system in in improving academic performance and its tremendous impact on students' personal development with stories from two students.
A number of guests present expressed keen interest in Li's speech and asked in depth about Squirrel AI's intelligent adaptive learning platform, company positioning, student learning effect, and application of AI technology in education. In the end, they discussed the possibility of future cooperation with Li.
A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/9b543a23-f969-4b0b-ada4-045a0808e41b
Ms. Tigipko, founder of TA Ventures, a European investment company, expressed her concern about the internationalization of Squirrel AI. Li briefed her on the company's international R&D team, the research results jointly achieved with leading research institutes at home and abroad such as Stanford Research Institute (SRI) International, as well as the invitation as guest speaker at international leading AI and education conferences such as IJCAI and AIED. Ms. Tigipko showered praise on the product and expressed her interest in the expansion of Yixue Squirrel AI Learning into other European countries such as Ukraine, and offered to assist with the docking and pilot cooperation with schools in Ukraine.
Li also discussed Squirrel AI's globalization and overseas localization business development with representatives from various companies all over the world. For example, Li discussed with Mr. Jalakas, founder of Lingvist, the US' online smart textbook platforms, the possibility of cooperation on the embedding of overseas high quality education content into Squirrel AI's intelligent adaptive platform, and agreed to explore the implementation of Squirrel AI in American schools.
Mr. Chkuor, Chief Designer of Lenovo Group, expressed his expectations of the penetration of Squirrel AI's super teachers into every household around the world, and his belief that Squirrel AI will bring more disruptive changes to education worldwide.
According to statistics, Squirrel AI's products were officially launched in early 2017 after three years of incubation. At present, its end users are over 1 million and owns more than 1,000 AI self-study classrooms in over 200 cities. Li said that the company has secured financing up to RMB 1 billion yuan.
About YiXue Squirrel AI Learning Inc.
YiXue Squirrel AI Inc. is a leading AI-based adaptive learning service provider for K-12 students in China. Headquartered in Shanghai, China, YiXue offers after-school courses for Math, English, Chinese, Physics and Chemistry subjects, powered by its proprietary AI adaptive engine and custom-built courseware. Students on Squirrel AI 's platform enjoy a supervised adaptive learning experience that has been proven to improve both efficacy and student engagement across Squirrel AI's online learning platform and in-person learning centers. To learn more about YiXue Squirrel AI Learning, please visit http://www.squirrelai.us/.
News published on and distributed by:
