| Hello! This is Saritha Rai, the AI reporter in Asia. Artificial intelligence is having a big impact on learning, empowering tutors and learners in myriad ways and reshaping the education system in India. But first... Three things you need to know today: • US security agencies are probing whether Chinese hackers breached top telecom firms
• Nvidia partner Hon Hai is boosting production to meet 'crazy' AI demand
• Samsung apologized to investors for disappointing results and delays in delivering a key type of chip for AI In the world's most populous country, English language dexterity has multiple payoffs, helping elevate social acceptance, advance careers and even find better marriage partners. But the education system is ailing under the weight of dilapidated school infrastructure, outmoded instruction and a severe shortage of teachers. The fallout includes a stark inequality in English fluency. That's sparked the proliferation of ornately titled and informal schools such as the Savvy Institute of English, the British Academy and Flying Feathers. That trio can be found in the city of Patiala, where dozens of other such offline outlets are flourishing today. Now AI is ready to give this market a digital makeover. Take one example: Shashi Kant Shashi grew up in Purnia in northeastern India, an under-developed region where more than 15 million people speak one of the country's lesser-known languages, Maithili. He went to a school that used English as its primary medium of instruction, but when he arrived in Delhi for college, he realized he could barely speak the language. Now Shashi is learning English on SpeakX, an AI-driven app that teaches people how to gain facility in the language. He hopes to perform better in his ongoing internship at Delhi's crowded Tis Hazari courts and advance to a legal career in the Delhi High Court where, he says, a command of English is vital. SpeakX is one of the handful of Indian startups, along with the likes of Stimuler and Sparky AI, that are using AI to teach learners spoken English. But there are other uses as well. In the western state of Gujarat, an AI-driven tool called Vaachan Samiksha, backed by Silicon Valley-based Indian-origin tech billionaire Romesh Wadhwani, is helping 120,000 teachers in 30,000 schools assess 2.5 million students' oral reading fluency. The automated tool integrates with the learning apps and platforms and also helps students learn at their individual pace to reach the benchmark of 35-53 correct words per minute. Just as I was trying out SpeakX, I got an announcement from Duolingo: The popular language-learning app was introducing AI-powered video calls. Premium subscribers can have spontaneous, realistic chats with the bot Lily who adapts to their proficiency. Both Duolingo and Gurgaon-based SpeakX use generative AI, the same tech that set off a global bedlam when OpenAI's ChatGPT and a host of chatbots rode into mainstream use overnight. SpeakX harnesses large language models and its own proprietary speech technology to create AI coaching bots. To train the AI, the startup hired English teachers to have impromptu conversations with real people. The result is a dynamic bot that reconfigures itself based on the learner's proficiency and progress. Yes, very much like what Duolingo promises. A doctor in Faridabad and a bank official in Jaipur, who I interviewed, are hoping to better communicate with their clients, and a homemaker in the central Indian city of Jhansi wants to learn English so she can assuredly speak up at her child's parent-teacher meetings. The app offers subscriptions (299 rupees, which is about $3.50, a month) and comes with instant feedback, 24/7 access and a leaderboard to track progress. If a user doesn't log in for a couple of days, the bot picks up the conversation with questions like, "I haven't seen you in a while, what were you up to?" Now with 10 million downloads since its launch this year, the app just raised $10 million from investors like Elevation Capital and Goodwater Capital. About two-thirds of its paid users are from small-town India. Founder Arpit Mittal said he came upon the idea of creating SpeakX based on his own journey after growing up in Haridwar, a prominent pilgrimage town in the foothills of the Himalayas. He was barely able to string sentences together in English before he moved out to study engineering and then worked at startups and eventually became a founder. Throughout his life, the 38-year-old said he encountered two kinds of people: the cool folks who spoke English fluently and then the "rest of us." English was his bugbear whether seeking a girlfriend, getting a good campus placement or pitching to investors. In India, English is so important that if you aren't well spoken, you aren't considered educated. While nearly a third of India's 1.4 billion people can operate in English, not even 5% of the population is able to speak comfortably, he said. Before writing, I subscribed to SpeakX. My AI teacher Sia sounded quite Indian. While her voice came off stilted on occasion, she also conveyed emotions appropriate to the context. The conversations were situation-based and the AI bots currently offer a couple of hundred use cases. Sia taught me how to easily open conversations at work. She led me through introducing work colleagues to each other with descriptions like "great at networking." She also led me to practice conversation closers like, "hope to work with you soon." As I took Sia for a spin, I was left wondering if, between the mobile phone and fast-advancing AI technologies, India's good old "English speaking" institutes were due for an imminent obituary.—Saritha Rai A US judge ruled that Google must open its Android app store to rival developers in a long-running antitrust lawsuit brought by video game maker Epic Games. The decision, which Google will appeal, is the latest blow aimed at providing greater competition for the lucrative app stores run by the search giant and Apple. Agility Robotics showed off a new factory it says is capable of producing 10,000 of its humanoid workplace robots a year. Amazon's push to get more workers back in the office reflects management's view that many remote employees were being left behind because they didn't understand the company's culture. iPhone maker Hon Hai says it will take years to build up its nascent automotive arm as electric vehicle sales slow across the globe. EV maker Rivian was left without a core component after a snafu with a major supplier. | 
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