中國家長將家庭作業外判給人工智能 (2/2)

Recently the New York Times reported the following:

China’s Parents Are Outsourcing the Homework Grind to A.I. (2/2)

Parents in China are turning to A.I. chatbots and other tools to help their children gain an edge and ease the fighting over homework.

The NYT - By Vivian Wang and Jiawei Wang - Vivian Wang reported from Beijing. Jiawei Wang reported from Seoul.

March 2, 2026

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Creating Learning Games

Yin Xingyu, 37, uses A.I. chatbots like DeepSeek in her job as a marketer in Shenzhen. She started to wonder whether the tool could also help her 6-year-old daughter.

Ms. Yin didn’t know how to code, so she turned to what’s known as “vibecoding” instead: using A.I. models to build software by describing what you want in plain language. She worked with DeepSeek to build an interactive English word game for her daughter. The chatbot wrote the code for her.

She is now sharing the prompts on social media so other parents can input them into their own chatbots and replicate her games.

Ms. Yin has also experimented with other models. She used Google’s A.I. image generator, Nano Banana Pro, to create comic strips that used her daughter’s Chinese vocabulary words, starring her favorite characters from movies like “Zootopia” and “Frozen.”

Ms. Yin said she didn’t think that her daughter would become dependent on A.I., because she designed the games to prioritize active thinking over passive stimulation. She plans to encourage her daughter to use the tools even more as she gets older; for example, by using chatbots to brainstorm ideas for essays.

“Most likely that’s how the future will be, and I want her to get used to it from a young age,” she said.

‘A.I. Self-Study Rooms’

Not every effort to use A.I. for education has been successful. Some companies have rolled out products that critics say are more hype than substance.

So-called “A.I. self-study rooms,” for example, are advertised as physical spaces where students can learn from A.I.-powered tablets that tailor learning plans to individual needs. Fees range from a few dollars an hour to hundreds of dollars a month.

A state media report from 2024 about the trend showed a classroom in Zhejiang Province lined with cubicles, where students sat quietly in front of tablets that assessed their completion of assignments for accuracy and speed.

But some parents and former employees have complained that the “A.I.” is merely a marketing facade for prerecorded lessons or other less advanced technology, and that the tablets are just basic, off-the-shelf devices.

State media outlets have also accused the operators of some of the centers of trying to circumvent a 2021 ban on for-profit tutoring that was meant to shield children from having too much homework and families from spending too heavily. Many tutoring services have continued to operate underground. (The study centers have said that A.I. is doing the teaching, not tutors, so the ban does not apply.)

Many of the study rooms have already shut down, according to media reports. The New York Times twice tried to visit one in Beijing, only to find it locked and empty, with posters purporting to show reviews from satisfied parents still on the walls.

May Zeng, 24, worked at a study room in Jiangxi Province for two months last year, where she was in charge of making sure that students didn’t slack off. She thought that parents didn’t care as much about A.I. as they did about having somewhere to put their children.

Still, A.I. was getting used — by Ms. Zeng herself. As part of her duties, she had to write feedback on each student’s progress.

“When I found I really had nothing to say, I’d just throw it to the A.I.,” she said. “In this A.I. self-study room, I was the one using the most A.I.”

Translation

中國家長將家庭作業外判給人工智能 (2/2)

中國的家長們正在轉向人工智能聊天機械人和其他工具，以幫助孩子在學習上取得優勢，並減少因家庭作業而起的爭吵

（繼續）

創建學習遊戲

37歲的Yin Xingyu在深圳擔任行銷人員，她在工作中經常使用像DeepSeek這樣的人工智能聊天機械人。她開始思考，這個工具是否也能幫助她6歲的女兒。

Yin女士不懂程式設計，所以她轉而使用所謂的「感知編碼」：透過用簡單的語言描述需求，利用人工智能模型來建立軟件。她用DeepSeek配合，為女兒開發了一款互動式英語單字遊戲。聊天機械人為她編寫出程式碼。

她現在在社交媒體上分享與電腦溝通的提示，以便其他家長可以用它們輸入到自己的聊天機器械中，從而複製她的遊戲。

Yin女士也嘗試了其他模型。她使用Google的人工智能影像產生器 Nano Banana Pro，創作了一些簡短漫畫，漫畫中使用了她女兒正在學習的中文詞彙，扮演是她最喜歡電影裡的角色，例如《瘋狂動物城》(Zootopia) 和《冰雪奇緣》(Frozen) 。

Yin女士表示，她不認為女兒將會變得依賴人工智能，因為她設計的這些遊戲旨在培養孩子的主動思考能力，而不是被動而非被動的刺激。她計劃鼓勵女兒在長大後更多地使用這些工具；例如，使用聊天機械人來集思廣益，為作文尋找靈感。

她說:「未來很可能就是這樣，我希望她從小就習慣它」。

“人工智能自學室”

並非所有將人工智能應用於教育的嘗試都取得了成功。一些公司推出的產品被批評者認為華而不實。

例如，所謂的「人工智能自學室」被宣傳為實體空間，學生可以在這裡使用人工智能平板電腦學習，這些平板電腦會根據個人需求量身定制學習計劃。費用從每小時幾美元到每月幾百美元不等。

2024年的一篇官方媒體報導了這一趨勢，報導中展示了浙江省的一間教室，教室裡排列著一排排隔間，學生們安靜地坐在平板電腦前，平板電腦會評估他們完成作業的準確性和速度。

但一些家長和前員工抱怨說，「人工智能」只不過是預先錄製的課程或其他不太先進技術的行銷噱頭，而這些平板電腦只是基本的現成設備。

官方媒體也指責一些自學中心的經營者試圖規避2021年禁止營利性課外輔導的禁令，該禁令旨在避免孩子作業過多，也避免家庭支出過高。許多輔導機構仍在暗中運作。 （這些輔導中心聲稱，授課的是人工智能，而非輔導老師，因此禁令對他們無效。）

據媒體報道，許多輔導室已經關閉。 《紐約時報》曾兩度試圖造訪北京的一家輔導室，卻發現它大門緊閉，空無一人，牆上還貼著一些據稱是家長好評的海報。

24歲的May Zeng去年在江西省的一家輔導室工作了兩個月，負責督促學生認真學習。她認為，家長更關心的是，是否有地方可以安置孩子，而不是人工智能。

然而，人工智能確實被Zeng本人使用了 。她作為工作的一部分，需要為每個學生的學習進度撰寫出回應。

她說:「當我發現自己沒什麼好說的時候，我就把它交給人工智能寫」; 「在這個人工智能自學室裡，我是使用人工智能最多的人」。

So, parents in China are turning to A.I. to gain a competitive edge. Some are making interactive learning games or using chatbots to grade their children’s homework, while others are using it to get past a language barrier. Their eagerness to embrace A.I. for learning is a sharp contrast to many in the United States who worry that it may feed students misinformation or erode critical thinking. Apparently, there is a huge different between these two countries due to cultural difference etc.

Note:

1. In the computer world, a “prompt” (提示) is essentially an instruction or input given to a computer system by a user to get a response or action from the computer. The exact meaning depends on context, but here are the main uses: 1. Command Line Prompt (classic meaning) - A prompt is the symbol or text that shows a computer is ready for input. Example: C:\Users\>; 2. Prompt as a Request for Input - Programs often “prompt” users to enter information. Example: “Enter your password:”; “Are you sure you want to continue? (Y/N)”; 3. AI Prompt (modern meaning) - With tools like ChatGPT, a prompt is the text you give an AI to guide its response. Example prompts: “Write a story about space travel”; “Explain quantum physics simply”; “Summarize this article”. (ChatGPT)