China has started a grand experiment in AI education. It could reshape how the world learns.

Zhou Yi was terrible at math. He risked never getting into college. Then a company called Squirrel AI came to his middle school in Hangzhou, China, promising personalized tutoring. He had tried tutoring services before, but this one was different: instead of a human teacher, an AI algorithm would curate his lessons. The 13-year-old decided to give it a try. By the end of the semester, his test scores had risen from 50% to 62.5%. Two years later, he scored an 85% on his final middle school exam. "I used to think math was terrifying," he says. "But through tutoring, I realized it really isn't that hard. It helped me take the first step down a different path."