(1) The number of people who often surf the internet in China reached 989 million as of December 2020, an increase of 85.4 million from the end of last March, according to a report on China’s internet development.

(2) Thanks to the increasingly internet coverage, the e-commerce (商业) business has been rolled out in many poor places across the country. Rural (农村) e-commerce has attracted a large number of workers, college students, service men and women to return home and start their own businesses. By the end of 2019, there were 13.84 million rural e-commerce shops

(3) Online retail sales in rural areas have increased from 180 billion yuan ($27.87billion) in 2014 to 1.7 trillion yuan in 2019. Total online retail sales of agricultural (农业) products reached 397.5 billion yuan in 2019, bringing profits (利润) to more than three million farmers. What’s more, internet coverage made lots of education programs available to students living in areas far away, said the report. This largely helped the students in the countryside.

(4) The report shows by the end of 2020, the number of online video users hit 927 million, up by 76.33 million from the end of March. Influenced by the sudden outbreak of COVID-19 in January 2020, the market for entertainment (娱乐) apps in China has increased quickly. Social video-sharing apps like Tik Tok and Kuaishou have become the top two most used apps in China. An increasing number of companies are marketing their products via live streaming functions on those apps. Sellers are able to chat with customers and show products in real-time.

Artificial intelligence (人工智能), or Al for short, has become an important part of our daily life. It is certain that Al will influence education (教育) in the next few years. Let’s see how!

The role of teachers

What will the role of teachers be in this robotic classroom of the future? Many teachers worry that AI will take their jobs. In fact, we will always need human teachers to manage the classroom environment and to encourage students. A large part of education for children is teaching them social-emotional (社会情感) skills. While AI programs can teach students to read and solve math problems, teaching social-emotional skills is more complex (复杂的). That kind of learning needs the human touch that only teachers can provide.

Classrooms

AI can make certain tasks easier. Grading (评分), for example, can become quicker and easier by using AI. In the future, some believe AI will even be able to tell if students are having problems with a certain subject based on their facial expressions (面部表情) alone. AI can also provide education for those who have hearing problems or are unable to speak the local language.

AI outside the classroom

AI in education is extending (延伸) outside the classroom, too. It can help students prepare for tests, such as college entrance exams. It can also help them with their homework.

Has your school used AI? Do you think AI is the future of education?

AI has been used in many different fields to do many tasks, including education, heavy industry(工业), toys and games and so on.

Education

There are a number of companies (公司) that create robots to teach subjects to children, from biology to computer science. With the help of AI, allows students from around the world to take classes online. Though such tools have not become popular yet.

Heavy Industry

Robots will become common in many industries, and are often given jobs that are considered dangerous to humans.

Toys and Games

Companies like Mattel have been creating AI-enabled toys for young people, even for kids aged three. Those toys are able to understand conversations, give smart answers and learn quickly. AI has been used in video games, for example video game bots.