(Yicai Global) July 27 -- Youdao, the education technology unit of Chinese internet firm NetEase, has unveiled China's first vertical large language model for the education sector.

Ziyue integrates knowledge of different school subjects and provides students with personalized analysis and instructions to achieve guided learning, Yudao's Chief Executive Zhou Feng said at an event in Beijing yesterday. The LLM can be used in six application scenarios, including translation, oral language tutoring, and composition mentoring.

LLMs can promote the development of the edtech sector, Chen Liteng, an analyst at e-commerce researcher 100EC.Cn, told Yicai Global. Edtech firms can provide better educational content while cutting costs for teachers by analyzing large amounts of data, Chen noted, adding that this may pose challenges, such as data safety.

Youdao invested much in artificial intelligence technologies and does not hope to further increase the company's overall research and development expenses to deploy generative AI, Zhou pointed out. The firm will use the existing investment to redeploy and optimize R&D resources, he added.

Youdao spent CNY180 million (USD25.2 million) on R&D in the first quarter, down 9.9 percent from a year earlier, mainly because of fewer staffers.

As LLMs and AI have become popular this year, other edtech firms have tried to tap into these fields.

On July 4, TAL Education Group launched a course on AI-generated content based on an LLM it developed. TAL Education's LLM will support more learning products in the future, Chief Technology Officer Tian Mi said.

In May, Chinese AI technology developer iFlytek unveiled a tabled equipped with Spark Desk, an AI model that can be used in revising Chinese and English pieces and making oral dialogues in Chinese and English.

Xiaodu Technology, the AI unit of Chinese tech giant Baidu, recently launched Qinghe, an education-oriented AI-powered smartphone for teenagers equipped with Xiaodu Lingji, an AI model powered by Baidu's Ernie Bot. The phone has functions such as AI-based interactive homework illustration, writing guidance, and oral-language exercise.

Editors: Shi Yi, Futura Costaglione