Squirrel Ai Co-Founder Joleen Liang Highlights the Role of AI in Critical Thinking at ASU+GSV Summit

SHANGHAI, April 18, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- The ASU+GSV Summit, co-hosted by Arizona State University (ASU) and Global Silicon Valley (GSV), recently kicked off at the Manchester Grand Hyatt in San Diego, California. Themed 'Learning at the Speed of Light', the event drew over 7,000 educators, business owners, investors, and policymakers, including Khan Academy founder Sal Khan and Stanford University's Prof. Andrew Ng (co-founder of Coursera).

Among the distinguished speakers was Dr. Joleen Liang, co-founder of Squirrel Ai Learning, who joined a high-profile panel with Khan Academy Chief Learning Officer Kristen DiCerbo and SchoolAI CEO Caleb Hicks to explore "Cultivating Critical Thinking in the Age of AI Tutors". 

Hailed as the 'Davos of EdTech', the ASU+GSV Summit is one of the most influential events in global education and workforce learning. It provides a platform for leading innovators across the "PreK to Gray" (early childhood through lifelong learning) sector to exchange ideas, share best practices, and explore opportunities for collaboration.

Dr. Liang opened the discussion with a compelling thesis: "AI won't replace human thought—it's a tool to ignite deeper cognition". She elaborated on this viewpoint by citing the company's proprietary large adaptive model (LAM) for multimodal education as an example.

With the growing popularity of general-purpose AI led by LLMs and ChatGPT, Squirrel Ai Learning 's multimodal LAM remains laser-focused on the education sector. Leveraging 117 patented technologies, including fine-grained knowledge component decomposition and root-cause analysis, it dynamically tracks students' problem-solving processes to deliver truly personalized learning solutions. This ensures every learner discovers their optimal study method, accelerating the progress of adaptive education.

Squirrel Ai's all-subject multimodal adaptive learning model enhances intelligent human-computer interaction, enabling seamless voice and text-based engagement with students. For instance, when a student solves a math problem, instead of just grading the answer, Squirrel Ai Learning's adaptive tutoring system guides them with Socratic questioning: "Would the conclusion hold if the conditions change?" This approach encourages students to think independently and deepen their understanding by prompting them to verify their logic and re-evaluate problem-solving strategies.

Squirrel Ai Learning's MCM (Model of thinking, Capacity, Method) model further helps students uncover latent strengths. Dr. Liang emphasized, "We're nurturing adaptable thinkers—not training machine-dependent learners—and we believe it will benefit them for life."

Squirrel Ai Learning's innovations earned it a spot on the 2025 GSV 150 list, which evaluates over 2, 500 global companies backed by venture capital and private equity, and won the Most Transformational Growth Companies In Digital Learning and Workforce Skills award.

During the summit, many international educators recognized and praised Squirrel Ai Learning 's LAM model. Michael Horn from the Harvard Graduate School of Education shared that he frequently cites the company's adaptive tutoring system as a case study in his courses, commending its decade-long technological evolution and continued innovation.

According to publicly available data, the company allocates 30% of its annual revenue to R&D as part of its mission to make quality education more accessible. It has built a top-tier research team that brings together leading AI scientists and education professionals from around the globe, while collaborating with leading universities and research organizations worldwide. To date, Squirrel Ai Learning has opened over 3,000 physical learning centers across China and partnered with more than 60,000 public schools, collecting  nearly 10 billion learning behavior data points from over 24 million students.

As the deep integration of AI and education emerges as a central theme in education reform, Squirrel Ai Learning 's adaptive learning system offers the industry a tangible solution: AI should never replace student thinking but rather serve as a cognitive partner that cultivates critical thinking. The future of high-quality education requires both relentless innovation in technology and the commitment to preserve the human element that nurtures original thought.

Contact:
Li Huang
[email protected]

SOURCE Squirrel Ai Learning