“Learning machines are responsible for teaching, supervising teachers are responsible for nurturing” “Replacing teachers with AI, ‘Double Reduction’ policy under the after-school care classes”… With the rise of AI technology, especially the recent emergence of DeepSeek from Zhongxiu, AI study rooms have quietly appeared in many residential areas and near campuses. According to publicly available data, by July last year, a total of 50,000 AI study rooms had been opened nationwide. Of course, the main users of these study rooms are their parents, whose primary goal is to improve their children’s academic performance through such study rooms and achieve the goal of “studying well to become an official.” However, many parents do not have a good opinion of them. In fact, these AI study rooms are also entirely a response to Zhongxiu’s restrictions on private tutoring classes, with no real innovations.
Some practitioners of AI study rooms state that currently AI cannot fully replace teachers, especially the humanistic and caring aspects of education itself. The reason such AI study rooms can appear is because teachers under the revisionist educational system rarely teach students practical knowledge; they are merely enforcers of fascist policies. After Zhongxiu launched the “Double Reduction” policy to crack down on private training enterprises, the original monopolistic training companies quickly launched their own AI learning machines, and many individual franchisees found new “ways out”: purchasing thirty or fifty learning machines and hiring a supervising teacher, then they can open an “AI Wisdom Room.” Many AI study rooms only require the supervising teachers to be “patient and able to operate computers.” Through such technological upgrades, the bourgeoisie in the education sector can more easily reduce labor costs and cut down on the teachers they employ.
However, are these AI study rooms really so magical that they can bring wealth to practitioners and satisfy parents? In early 2024, Ning Yangyang saw an enticing promotion on social media: “Full house of 32 seats within a month of opening, monthly income of 80,000+,” “An individual Wisdom Room can pay off a car in two years.” Soon, she and her retired teacher mother also opened their own study room. However, after three months, the study room only enrolled three students, and she could only promote through manual methods; most students came through acquaintances. Later, she tried investing 200,000 yuan, franchising a big-brand learning machine, or advertising on major platforms, but the results were disappointing. It shows that under the rise of AI study rooms, only a few large monopolistic training enterprises can really succeed. Similarly, the reason AI study rooms find it hard to replace traditional cram schools is less about lacking “humanistic care” and more about lacking direct restrictions, which makes it impossible to satisfy most parents. In fact, many training institutions claiming to be “AI study rooms” are simply “putting on a false front,” and only by doing so can they meet parents’ demands. Parent Liu Ying encountered AI study rooms through “underground” tutoring classes; faced with fully booked classes, she saw “AI tutoring” and its high prices, and she said, “It’s hard to entrust my child’s grades to a ‘system’ I’ve never even heard of before.”
In summary, the so-called AI study rooms are not a new phenomenon; they are merely a product of the further decay of China’s productive forces. They cannot fundamentally change the essence of revisionist education, nor can they save China’s economy.