The Rise of AI Tutors: How Chinese Apps are Revolutionizing Education in the US

In the US, a quiet revolution is transforming the way students study, thanks to AI-powered tutoring apps. Among the top 20 education apps in the US App Store, five are AI agents that assist students with their school assignments.

Two of the most popular AI helpers, Question AI and Gauth, are Chinese-owned, with millions of downloads in the US.

Evan, a high school sophomore from Houston, uses Answer AI to tackle his calculus homework. The app provides step-by-step solutions and has replaced his private tutor, who cost $60 per hour. Similarly, Myhanh, a high school junior, has seen her math grades improve from 85 to 95 since using generative AI to study.

AI tutors offer equitable access to after-school tutoring, making it more affordable for students from diverse backgrounds. They also provide personalized teaching, remembering a student’s learning habits and adapting to their needs. However, AI tutors are not without limitations. They can generate incorrect answers and suffer from hallucinations. To improve accuracy, Answer AI uses Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG), fine-tuning its language model with domain knowledge.

Educators are grappling with the role of AI in education. Some public school districts have banned access to ChatGPT on school devices, but enforcing a ban on generative AI is challenging. Instead, educators may need to educate students on the role of AI as an imperfect assistant that sometimes makes mistakes.

Chinese dominance in the US education app market is a result of their concerted effort to target the American market. In 2021, China imposed rules to clamp down on its private tutoring sector, leading many service providers to pivot to overseas users. The US is their most coveted international market due to its size.

To differentiate themselves, AI tutoring apps will need to enhance user personalization features. Answer AI’s founder, Ric Zhou, emphasizes the importance of fine-tuning AI to teach more effectively, inviting students to ask follow-up questions and encouraging deeper learning.

The rise of AI tutors is transforming the education landscape, offering equitable access to personalized learning. As AI technology advances, it will be crucial to address its limitations and ensure that students use AI as a learning aid, rather than relying solely on it for answers.