Shanghai forum to discuss AI in education

How artificial intelligence will influence education will be one of the key issues discussed at this year’s World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai at the end of this month.

A forum on August 29 by Shanghai Educational Technology Center will address the topic. Experts from home and abroad will share their ideas and research, companies will show their latest technologies and products, while some local schools will showcase their achievements in digitalizing their campuses.

Among the speakers will be Tom Mitchel, an American computer scientist and former chair of Carnegie Mellon University's machine learning department. He'll talk about AI's impact on education while Dan Schwartz, dean of Stanford University's graduate school of education, will talk about AI's potential in education. Wu Zhaohui, president of Zhejiang University, Zheng Nanning, former president of Xi’an Jiaotong University, will be among other guests speaking about the technology and education reform. Lu Jing, director of the Shanghai Education Commission, will make a speech on how Shanghai will promote education with AI.

Companies, including China’s Internet giant Tencent, Tomorrow Advancing Life, a leading education and technology enterprise in China, LAIX Inc, an AI company focusing on English learning, will show their latest educational products featuring AI and share their views on how the technology can assist education.

Shanghai released its second action plan for educational informatization last year, stressing principles to discover students’ potential, inspire their interests, guide their study and help them fulfil personal value.

A total of 54 schools have been selected in the program to promote the use of information technology in education, such as school and teacher management, teaching and assessment. Some of the schools will share their practices at the forum, together with representatives from schools from other areas of China.