Rethinking school: maths youtubers Daniel Jung and Semantha build platform AIEDN
“Thank you for getting me through my Abitur!” is probably the most common reaction when people meet Daniel Jung on the street. The educational entrepreneur (New Learning) is known to many from YouTube. His latest project is an educational platform with semantic AI, accessible free of charge for schoolchildren and anyone who is curious: The prototype is now complete and is currently going through the final steps in the pilot phase. Heise Developer conducted a detailed background discussion with Jung, which will be published separately shortly.
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AIEDN: 3000 Math Videos for Semantic AI
AIEDN: A first prototype of the educational platform with curated knowledge content and semantic AI has been published.
(Bild: AIEDN – AI in Education)
AIEDN is initially a joint research project of the Karlsruhe AI start-up thingsTHINKING GmbH and the Institute for Applied AI at the Stuttgart Media University (HDM). Above all, it is an initiative of the math youtuber from North Rhine-Westphalia, who made his more than 3,000 math explanation videos available for training the semantic AI system and who has been interested in the idea for the platform for a long time.
The AI Semantha provides math questions with targeted learning videos with the relevant video sequence as well as additional scripts, as a short demo shows. According to project managers “[ist] Math is just the beginning”: In principle, the system also works for other subjects and not just for formal and natural sciences. Using math tasks, the benefit can only be measured and evaluated particularly clearly. The state of Baden-Württemberg is funding the joint research project, whose investigation is expected to take place in To be completed by November 2023.
Understanding math: “AI shows the solution”
Jung’s new EdTech project is a collaboration with AI and brain researchers, and it could revolutionize education. EdTech stands for Education Technology, and AIEDN (AI in Education) is about the supporting use of AI in education. The developer editorial team tried out the platform’s app directly and received convincing help on math questions in the area of algebra, differential equations and the calculation of atomic molar mass (see photo gallery):
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How do I calculate a molar mass?
(Image: AIEDN app)
The AI does not generate any results, but uses a semantic search to find suitable places in the curated videos and scripts. She does not take away from the students the understanding itself and their own way to the solution. In the school trial, high school students at a high school in Baden-Württemberg were allowed to take the app with them to the exam. “The solution does not come, but the solution,” explains Dr. Sven J. Körner, AI researcher and managing director of thingsTHINKING, who supports Daniel Jung’s project “as a tech guy”.
Years ago, the math youtuber developed a method for explaining complicated math questions on the whiteboard in just a few minutes, in the form of “knowledge nuggets”. As an experienced tutor, he knows that it is often just about closing gaps in knowledge so that the penny drops. But Jung is much more than “the math fuzzy,” as he emphasized in an interview with Heise: He fights for educational equality in Germany. With his formats and ideas, he was often a few years ahead of his time in Germany.
Research project examines AI-supported learning
As with Jung’s explanatory videos on YouTube and TikTok, the AIEDN (AI in Education) platform should enable “free, individual learning anywhere and anytime”, promise those responsible for the project. Unlike YouTube, the educational platform is free from distractions and interruptions. An independent scientific study accompanies the project and investigates to what extent the AI-supported, tailor-made finding of learning material to fill knowledge gaps accelerates learning and whether what has been learned is retained in the long term.
The AIEDN team: Mathias Landhäußer, Daniel Jung, Georg Müller, Abdelmalik El-Guesaoui, Sven Körner (from left to right), all semantha/thingsTHINKING employees except Jung
(Image: Sven Körner)
The Remscheider and his colleagues entered the pilot phase with optimism. The feedback from the test users was partly euphoric, as reported by the local press (“With AI, cheating is suddenly part of it”, Heilbronner voice in February 2023). Jung has been involved with machine learning and AI for a long time. Four years ago, in his non-fiction book “Let’s rock education”, he called for people to prepare for the transformation of the education system through AI. The AI is more of a means to an end, because for Jung the focus is on the people – those who want to acquire knowledge and those who impart it. “Curated content creates trust,” says Jung, who calls the concept “trusted teacher.”
Next stage of expansion with specialist forums for math, physics, computer science, chemistry, biology
It is important to Jung not to build the next closed school software “for a tenner a month”, which many students would then not be able to afford. His project is committed to educational equity and, like his math videos on YouTube, all content should be free for users. In the long term, AIEDN should also bundle the videos of other teachers and also collect content, for example in the tax and financial areas, which not only offers young people orientation through tried-and-tested explanatory videos by professionals.
In the next expansion stage, Daniel Jung’s specialist forums are to be connected, in addition to the previous main platform Mathefragen.de also the corresponding forums for computer science, physics, chemistry and biology questions, in which the learners receive guidance in self-learning, but in case of doubt also support from get human tutors. Cooperation with various university institutions is planned, for example the educational research department of the LMU Munich has already confirmed its participation. Whether the AIEDN platform leads to a better understanding than just learning from books and videos is the subject of research on the learning effect. The brain researcher Henning Beck, author of the non-fiction book “The new learning means understanding”, supervises the study on behalf of HDM.
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Looking for visionary investors
Everything is connected, and it couldn’t be more important: A successful journey of knowledge, school and university degrees and education itself are the most valuable assets that we have in Germany in the long term, emphasized Jung in an interview. In view of the emerging de-industrialization, the importance of education continues to grow. He doesn’t want to overthrow the school system, but instead wants to give teachers and students a new tool that is suitable for teaching, for exam preparation, for deeper understanding and for awakening a thirst for knowledge. Understanding should be independent of the wallet or social background, and with AI, the path to understanding can be accelerated.
Jung’s vision is a Germany-wide platform with which Germany can set accents and maybe even new standards in the field of AI education. The focus is on value creation in Germany and transparency of the content. The project is spun off from the research project as a non-profit limited company. He wants to monetize or finance the advertising-free platform, for example through offers for companies and companies in the area of lifelong learning and internal further training for employees. Jung and his project partners are currently in talks with foundations and potential investors – looking for supporters who would like to support an open access national educational platform with curated, high-quality knowledge content.
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AIEDN 1.0: Presentation at the AI Festival Heilbronn
In a background discussion with technical editor Silke Hahn, Jung explains in detail what is on his mind, why he had his own AI platform trained and what opportunities, but also the need for action, he sees in the education sector with a view to AI in Germany – the interview will be published shortly and will be linked here.
At the AI Festival in Heilbronn, Jung and Körner will present version 1.0 of AIEDN. The KI Festival takes place on July 1st and 2nd – the program offers knowledge, sports, music, an expo and food and beverages, admission is free. If you are curious, you can get an impression on site and exchange ideas directly with Daniel Jung. More about AIEDN is available on the project website. The AIEDN prototype app is also freely accessible and can be tested with math questions.
Note: The software is currently still in the alpha version. According to the AIEDN team, they are happy to receive feedback.
(sih)
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