A conversation with Xueersi's "Ask Anytime" team: This generation of AI will definitely produce new learning products

Written by

Silas Grey

Updated on:July-16th-2025

Based on the integration of DeepSeek, the "AI teacher" in the education industry has taken a big step forward.

Many practitioners in the education industry believe that with the help of DeepSeek, "question-and-answer-based AI teachers explaining and solving problems will be the easiest area to make breakthroughs."

At this time, on February 14, Xueersi announced the official launch of the "Ask Anytime" APP, an AI learning product that integrates DeepSeek R1 technology.

At the same time, the Xueersi Ask Anytime team also held dialogues with multiple media outlets including Duozhi, elaborating on the core concept and future plans of this product.

This means that "Ask Anytime", as a new generation of AI learning product, may become one of the strategic products of Haoxueersi.

At present, the "Ask Anytime" APP mainly provides free Q&A services, which can provide layered answers for different age groups, including learning problems and life problems. During the Q&A process, some questions will recommend interactive explanation videos developed by Xueersi based on the corresponding knowledge points.

(The Xueersi Ask APP connected to DeepSeek is now available for download in the App Store)

According to the team, DeepSeek's V3 version has become one of the foundations of Xueersi's Jiuzhang model. Xueersi has added a large amount of proprietary data in the education field for secondary training, and developed product functions for learning scenarios on this basis.

Xiong Zefa, the person in charge of Xueersi Ask Anytime, mentioned that "Connecting to DeepSeek is a multiplication relationship. The core is whether we can create a depth of experience. Our goal is to allow every student to enjoy one-on-one precise tutoring for free. "

“The time has come”

In Xueersi’s view, now is a very good time to officially launch the “Ask Anytime” APP.

The Xueersi team has been following the progress of DeepSeek. Xiong Zefa said: "DeepSeek's breakthrough in early 2025 was unexpected. The emergence of the R1 model has made the entire industry feel a huge change."

Xiong Zefa mentioned: "First, the deep thinking mode greatly improves the usability of the product . Compared with the DeepSeek V3 model, the DeepSeek R1 model has greatly improved logical reasoning. When making products based on it, the imagination space is completely opened up. The deep thinking mode reduces hallucinations. After testing, the accuracy of pure text math questions is close to or even exceeds that of real people.

Second, low cost is a very important lever for high-quality technology to enter products and markets, and it also makes it possible to provide free services to users;

Third, DeepSeek is open source and fully transparent. The "Ask Anytime" app is connected to the full version of DeepSeek R1, and with the understanding of educational scenarios, it can answer users' various questions more quickly, stably and accurately.

Bai Jinfeng, head of the Xueersi Jiuzhang big model, added: "DeepSeek R1 has excellent reasoning capabilities, low cost, open source, and Chinese support. These combined factors make R1 groundbreaking and its output "soulful", which is also what distinguishes it from other big models."

Bai Jinfeng introduced that in the technology center of TAL, the public cloud has been connected to the version of DeepSeek, and DeepSeek is also being deployed on the private cloud. Compared with OpenAI o1, DeepSeek's cost is low, and the reasoning cost of DeepSeek is only 3% of OpenAI o1. However, there is still a cost, and the threshold for private deployment is relatively high. TAL's priority in the strategy of connecting to DeepSeek is user experience.

In any case, DeepSeek has injected new vitality into the entire AI technology.

Xiong Zefa said: "DeepSeek has given the industry confidence. On the one hand, everyone believes that Chinese technology practitioners can be the best in the world; on the other hand, it has an incentive effect on talents. With DeepSeek as a starting point, more people will push technology forward."

How to combine the educational big model with DeepSeek

Specifically, the Ask Anytime APP integrates learning tools that are frequently used by primary and secondary school students, such as AI photo-taking and answering questions, AI homework checking, and AI essay grading.

AI Q&A can take a photo to identify the question, then analyze it step by step. Some will also associate related knowledge points and provide interactive video explanations. The first step is recognition, and only after accurate recognition can the answer be given.

Homework can be checked and correct answers can be determined. An analysis of the knowledge points involved in the questions will also be given, and some wrong questions will be explained through interactive videos.

The Q&A interface in the middle of the first screen is directly connected to DeepSeek R1, which can enable DeepSeek's "deep thinking" mode with one click. Students can directly ask any learning questions or freely exchange personal thoughts.

Xiong Zefa said: "Xueersi has been thinking about what a better way of learning will be in the future, and hopes to implement new learning concepts through the Ask Anytime APP."

Although the deep thinking (R1) of "Ask Anytime" replicates the capabilities of DeepSeek, because it has the built-in capabilities of the Jiuzhang large model, "Ask Anytime" can provide answers that match age groups and limited knowledge scope.

For example, Duozhi first tested AI Q&A with college entrance examination questions. The system defaulted to high school students. When using the deep thinking (R1) mode, the system would bring up high school knowledge points when answering questions. If it was asked to answer according to the thinking of elementary school students, it could give completely different responses, which were related to the knowledge points of elementary school students.

At the same time, the "Ask Anytime" APP starts from the three dimensions of "asking questions", "answering" and "interactive guarantee" , hoping that students are willing to ask questions and like to ask questions.

In addition, the "Ask Anytime" APP has a "Socratic Questioning" mode. The AI assistant does not give answers directly, but guides users to come to their own answers or conclusions step by step through continuous questioning.

Yang Lixue, product director of Xueersi's Ask Anytime app, mentioned that "Ask Anytime" has some underlying design logic. For example, the steps of answering questions and solving problems seem a bit inefficient, and users are required to click, and then the system answers step by step. In fact, they are all to guide children to think first, rather than get first .

It can be seen that compared with the generative big models for adults, primary and secondary school learning tutoring has higher requirements for the accuracy and adaptability of AI big model content generation.

Xiong Zefa believes that the connection between "Ask Anytime" and DeepSeek is a multiplication relationship, and the APP has achieved deep optimization for primary and secondary school learning scenarios.

He gave an example: " First, the teaching and research capabilities, the knowledge points related to the questions, introduced 250 million minutes of self-developed interactive explanation videos. Video explanations are mostly VIP paid features in similar apps on the market, but they are completely free on Ask Anytime;

Second, the ability to recognize questions in the nine chapters, whether it is mathematical symbols such as sin and cos, questions in table form, or purely handwritten blurred handwriting, can be recognized with high accuracy;

Third, the "Nine Chapters Answering" capability of intelligent grading and adaptation. After users use the Ask Anytime APP to take a picture of a question, AI can determine the corresponding subject, grade, and scope of examination in real time, and match the knowledge scope and problem-solving methods required by that grade. For example, the answers to application questions before the fourth grade will not involve equations, and the function problems in junior high school will not mention complex concepts such as "domain of definition."

"There is a lot of work to be done to apply DeepSeek's capabilities to the field of education. It can be said that DeepSeek provides a method for general technological breakthroughs, while the Jiuzhang model focuses on the field of education and is optimized in combination with the new curriculum standards, teaching syllabuses, lesson plans and methods suitable for primary and secondary school students. 'Being able to do' and 'being able to explain' are different concepts, and the advantage of the Jiuzhang model lies in the latter," Bai Jinfeng explained.

“I believe this generation of AI will produce new learning products”

The Xueersi "Ask Anytime" team believes that in the long run, deep reasoning models represented by DeepSeek will have a more profound impact on the way humans learn.

Xiong Zefa said: "We believe that this generation of AI will definitely produce new learning products, and Xueersi is actively investing in it."

Previously, there were already many learning products and question-answering products on the market, but users’ needs had not actually been fully met.

Xiong Zefa said: "At present, the 'Ask Anytime' APP is still in its early stages. The users it faces are still a group of people who are willing to try the new generation of AI learning products. It has not yet crossed the gap with mass users. The user volume and scale are far from reaching the critical point, and it is far from completely breaking all the previous generation of learning products. Although there is no crystal ball to see the future, as long as you believe in it, you must continue to invest, and then gradually see the future clearly in the process."

The "Ask Anytime" APP brings together many learning tools and even incorporates explanation videos. So, can this replace course-type products?

Xiong Zefa believes: "Machines cannot replace human existence, which is a very important foundation. In addition to hard knowledge, education also has many dimensions that cannot be ignored. This is consistent with the mission of TAL, which is to "help lifelong growth with love and technology", that is, love and technology are both very important, and the role of people is very important."

The evolution of question-and-answer products is just a beginning. It is worth looking forward to what new forms will emerge in the education industry in the future.