The runaway success of Chinese artificial intelligence models such as DeepSeek and Qwen has spurred every industry, from health care to agriculture to education, to integrate AI.
Adoption of AI models in education and tutoring has been especially fast, as the Chinese government pushes to accelerate the country’s technological progress against the U.S., and with anxious parents willing to try anything to help their children succeed.
Like university teacher Wu Ling, who while looking for an English tutor for her 12-year-old son in Jiangsu province, picked a $1,170 robot dog.
The one-foot tall AlphaDog, which weighs about eight kilos (18 pounds) was developed by robotics startup Weilan and is powered by DeepSeek’s AI model. In addition to practicing English with Wu’s son, it chats with him about current events, dances to his guitar music, and, through its built-in camera, helps Wu monitor the home when she is away. It has become a part of the family, she told Rest of World.
“My son needs company, but we are a one-child family,” Wu said. “He asks the dog about all kinds of things — national news, weather, geography. Through AlphaDog, he is learning what the world is like.”
