China turns to artificial intelligence to boost its education system

For Peter Cao, who has dedicated 16 years of his career to teaching chemistry in a high school in central China's Anhui province, in every teacher there lives a "doctor". He spends two to three hours a day grading assignments, a process the 38-year-old describes as "diagnosing". "By reviewing the homework of my pupils, I can have an overall picture about their understanding of the lessons I give," Cao said, adding that this "diagnosis" helps him draw up a teaching plan for the following day. But if the Chinese online education start-up Master Learner has its way, Cao and his 14 million fellow teachers in China will be able to hand this time-consuming review process to a "super teacher", a powerful "brain" capable of answering nearly 500 million of the most tested questions in China's middle schools as well as scoring high points in each Gaokao test, China's life-changing college entrance exam, for the past 30 years. If the super teacher sounds too smart to be human, that is because it is not.