Preparing today’s students for a future where AI is widely used in every industry is no easy feat. The learning process itself can be highly technical and even daunting; apart from that, the opportunity to learn may not be available for every student. Even the availability of AI solutions in the market—such as ChatGPT—does not always help students comprehend the intricacies of the technology.

These are the problems that Hong Kong-based AI Blocks aim to tackle.

“By using AI to teach AI, we’ve built the world’s most experiential online learning platform where students can not only learn the theoretical approaches of AI but also practice their practical skills through building their own AI, all without the need for high-level mathematics knowledge and programming skills,” explains SQ Mah, CEO of AI Blocks, in an email to e27.

The company targets K-12 students by partnering directly with schools that provide students access to the course content, AI tools and platform.

According to Mah, the AI Blocks learning platform is light and efficient enough to run on low-power devices. It also does not require specialised hardware as it is able to run on mobile phones, iPads, and Chromebooks.

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The platform implements the four core tenets of learning that were developed by Harvard education theorist David A. Kolb: experience, reflect, conceptualise, and experiment.

In the context of learning about AI, this means students do it by using and building their own AI instead of just learning via worksheets. For example, to train computer vision, students are able to use a webcam to see the live results of their computer vision models. They are also able to collect the training data, change the AI architecture, and improve it themselves.

“More importantly, we challenge students to consider how they can contribute to solving societal problems by tying AI capabilities to coursework. For example, in humanities class, students learn about demographic shifts such as an ageing population, increasing the need for caretakers to an unsustainable level. Is there any way that AI can help? Students came up with solutions like a computer vision fall detection model for the elderly to help reduce the level of monitoring that is necessary,” Mah explains.

“The creativity in students from all backgrounds is what truly cements our belief that knowledge of AI cannot be just the purview of those in engineering or CS. It must be for all.”

A move to empower students

AI Blocks is run by a team consisting of four people. Apart from Mah, who brings his expertise from working at Google, Microsoft, and Hong Kong’s MTR, there is also Brendan Mah (product lead), Connor Au Yeung (curriculum lead), and Bravan Yuen (sales lead).

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In 2024, the company plans to continue expanding and developing its platform. It wants to create content that covers large language models and reinforcement learning. It also aims to create AI tools and content that have even better ties to existing school subjects such as science and English.

“To achieve this, we’re focused on creating a hyper-modularised experience, allowing schools and educators to improve AI capabilities for students to learn and better suit their contexts and needs,” Mah says.

In its expansion to Southeast Asia, AI Blocks receives support from the accelerator programme for edutech startup EduSpaze, which introduced it to customers in countries such as Singapore, Indonesia, and Vietnam.

“There’s also ample opportunity for partnership within the companies in the current EduSpaze batch as well as alumni and mentors. In the first week alone, we’ve already connected with a mentor to set up a potential pilot at their education centre, as well as work with one of our batchmates to introduce AI Blocks to one of their existing customers,” Mah closes.

“We’re excited to continue leveraging the support that EduSpaze has given us and will give us moving into 2024.”

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Image Credit: AI Blocks, EduSpaze

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