Chennai-based Anna University’s entire engineering syllabus across all disciplines can now be accessed in WhatsApp, thanks to an Artificial Intelligence-fuelled robotic instructor, ‘Malar Teacher’.
“Malar has assimilated all of their recommended reading materials and can teach any concepts in there at the learning level of a 10 year old”, says Arjun Reddy, Co-Founder of an AI Startup Studio, in a LinkedIn posting, claiming, the robot teacher is “the world’s first autonomous AI University Professor”.
Reporting the development in ‘The Heuristic’, the weekly newsletter on Artificial Intelligence brought out by India’s Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology ( MeitY), correspondent Dr Nivash Jeevanandam comments:
“Unlike other companies that might opt for traditional platforms or methods, Malar stands out by leveraging WhatsApp, a widely used messaging application in India. The decision was influenced by the insight gained from interviewing 100 students across different states, revealing that data usage is relatively inexpensive while mobile space is limited and expensive. Using WhatsApp, students can access Malar's services more freely without worrying about space constraints.”
“We wanted to take an India-centric approach and went with WhatsApp to tap into an existing ecosystem, thereby helping our users skip the friction of having to download one more app. Assessments and Code examples are coming up next, along with native apps for iOS, Android, Web, Mac, Windows, and Linux”, adds Arjun Reddy.
Sydney,Australia-based Deepika Loganathan, co-founder and CEO of AI R&D firm, HaiVE with presence in India, Australia and Singapore, who co-developed Malar Teacher, says they never expected the AI teacher to go viral so fast with so many students signing up.
Launched on April 19, the tool has seen huge enthusiasm – with over 140,000 registrations in four daysand a daily usage of around 42,000. While Malar Teacher answers up to 20 daily questions from a user for free, it gently nudges users to pay via the Unified Payments Interface to access more features.
Here is the link to access Malar on Whatsapp. Herwhatsapp number:+918088536116
This has appeared in NewIndiaAbroad