[Herald Interview] KidsLoop aims to personalize learning for every kid

Artificial intelligence is on track to fundamentally change education, making personalized learning possible for every child, said Robert Hardman, chief technology officer of KidsLoop.

In a recent interview with The Korea Herald, he also said artificial intelligence would be a necessity, not a luxury, in education in just a matter of five years.

Hardman cited the example of medicine to explain the process of how AI can personalize education.

“Medicine decoded the human genome that they can now do personalized medicine for each human. So the doctor knows that in six months’ time, you need this treatment. We’ll be doing the same with education. We will know what a child will be needing in two years, three years,” he explained.

Just as medicine prescriptions differ for each patient depending on physical condition, education should be different for each child.

“None of that is going to happen unless you have the AI agency of a sufficient level of complexity that can orchestrate that,” Hardman said.

The Seoul-based education technology company aims to be that agency making personalized learning possible. It currently provides a data-based personalized platform with a digital curriculum using animation and online and offline content for mostly children ages 3 to 8.

“We’re already planning to be in the right position to create that artificial intelligence, that agency to create that personalized education,” said the executive.

Headquartered in South Korea, KidsLoop offers its platform in nine different countries. It aims for a global presence, but the strategy to do that is not globalization, but localization, Hardman said.

Taking India for example, KidsLoop owns an Indian IT company with about 350 employees working there in partnership with local schools.

KidsLoop not only tries to provide its service in the country’s official language, but also in dialects, as it believes that is one of the paths for localization.

“We have a local footprint. And that’s one thing, KidsLoop ‘think globally, act locally’ because every area is different and it’s that that gives us a huge advantage for each of the local places we go,” said Hardman.

In South Korea, particularly, KidsLoop is looking to set up what they call an innovation center where they will develop more advanced services, AI and systems within its partners in Korea.

“South Korea has the technology understanding, and they have desire to learn. So it allows us to create that leading edge technology in an environment where it will be accepted readily and it is far easier to deploy,” he added.

The company wishes to demonstrate what education should be by using technology in an imaginative manner for intelligent content.

“It won’t be passive. It will be active. It will be a very different world. There will be an immersive experience. It will be personalized. There’ll be real time. It’ll be revolutionary,” said Hardman.

By Hong Yoo (yoohong@heraldcorp.com)