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One of the World’s Best-Funded Edtech Companies Is Investing In AI Moonshots. Can It Work?

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The Indian edtech giant Byju’s keeps getting bigger , having raised more than $4.5 This month the company made clear its ambitious research agenda: to achieve the science-fiction dream of building next-generation teaching aids with artificial intelligence. billion since it was founded 10 years ago. We want to be thought leaders.”

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Who is the Theranos of Education?

Edsurge

Over the last few months, biotech company Theranos has re-entered the conversation due to a slew of newsworthy happenings—the Elizabeth Holmes trial finally came to an end with four of 11 charges of fraud, and Hulu announced The Dropout’s debut while Apple Original Films’s Bad Blood is currently in production. Money came flowing.

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A Technologist Spent Years Building an AI Chatbot Tutor. He Decided It Can’t Be Done.

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Instead, he co-founded a new AI company, called Merlyn Mind, that is building other types of AI-powered tools for educators. Meanwhile, plenty of companies and education leaders these days are hard at work chasing that dream of building AI tutors. The assets of Knewton were quietly sold off a few years later.) They’re tools.

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Hitting Reset, Knewton Tries New Strategy: Competing With Textbook Publishers

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Knewton drew heaps of hype and investment by promising to provide artificial-intelligence technology to major textbook companies to make their content more adaptive. Now the company has pivoted, and it is poised to formally announce its own online courseware that will compete head-to-head with those publishing giants.

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Amid Struggles, Knewton Names Former Pearson Exec as New CEO

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Knewton pioneered adaptive-learning technology and amassed more than $157 million in venture capital, but lately the company has weathered through the loss of publishing partners and the departure of its outspoken founder. I said, if it’s Knewton, I’m very interested, but if it’s not Knewton, I’m not.”

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Pearson, an Investor in Knewton, Is ‘Phasing Out’ Partnership on Adaptive Products

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Throughout the past decade, Knewton ’s adaptive learning technology has been backed by some of the biggest names in the both the publishing and venture capital community. Pearson will no longer use Knewton’s adaptive learning engine for some of its digital offerings.

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US Edtech Funding Already Nears $1 Billion in First Half of 2019

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By comparison, in the first six months of 2018, companies raised $750 million across 62 deals. educational technology companies whose primary purpose is to support educators and learners across preK-12 and postsecondary education. Some companies count their accelerator funding into their subsequent seed rounds.

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