Democratising education through AI

YYeniChat is an artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot founded by Vitalis Haupindi, the CEO and chief technology officer at YYeni, as well as a cybersecurity student at the Namibia University of Science and Technology (NUST).

In partnership with Haupindi is Lotto Nanghonda Jr., the chief of finance and operations at YYeni and a chartered accountant student at the University of Science and Technology (Nust).

According to the founders of YYeni, the chatbot is designed to amplify the abilities of school teachers with the help of AI to allow the teacher to teach more effectively by simulating a one-on-one teaching environment.

The chat furthermore collects data from the learners work and gives feedback and recommendations to teachers and parents, who can use this feedback to further provide more content to instruct the YYeniChat AI. The first part of the platform amplifies the work of the teachers, and the second part involves the AI teaching itself independently of the teacher.

‘Helping humans learn everything’

YYeniChat is powered by a portfolio of large language models (LLMs) and has a vast knowledge of various subjects. Both learners and teachers can educate the AI in specific subjects by uploading PDF notes, sharing links to videos and websites. Parents also have the capability to provide tutoring to the learners.

Parents and teachers have the option to purchase YYeniChat Vouchers at prices of N$250, N$350, and N$550. These vouchers provide a bundle of messages that can be shared within the app's community. For instance, a N$350 voucher offers users a total of 2500 Messages (comprising questions and interactions with YYeniChat AI) covering all subjects taught in Namibia, including Afrikaans but excluding other indigenous languages of Namibia.

The company also offers a family package that allows all family members to access the account. All that you have to do as a parent is replenish the learners accounts. There is also an individual subscription and a teacher’s subscription.

"Our platform will create a generation of nerds," said Haupindi.

The YYeniChat app allows everyone to learn anything. In the rare case that it doesn’t know an answer, one can upload links or PDFs, and the app will use that content to teach the learners.

Specific, one-on-one learning

The app is not general-purpose like platforms like ChatGPT; it is specifically designed for learning and teaching support.

YYeniChat teaches learners through the Socratic method of teaching.

This method asks the learner questions when appropriate during the conversation and does not just give answers and explanations to their questions. The chatbot is specifically centred around Bloom's taxonomy for the cognitive domain to move learners from lower-order thinking levels to higher-order thinking. It further allows the users to go from just remembering information to understanding, evaluating, and analysing the information.

"In order for education to be successful, it needs to be personalised, and the AI revolution allows us to do this finally" Haupindi and Nanghonda Jr said.

"We are able to use the world’s most advanced AI models as part of our portfolio models because of an innovation in cost-cutting from our side, but also because we are going absolutely narrow and streamlining the use case of YYeniChat to teaching and learning support, we don’t have crazy high costs. Of course, at the moment, these AI models are a bit expensive, but well on their way to becoming cheap in the coming months.

"It is very important that we simulate a one-on-one learning environment because that’s the only proven intervention at the moment," they said, adding: "With our Namibian classrooms and elsewhere around the world, where on average you have one teacher for 45 learners, we can only dream but actually never realise exceptional academic output from our learners."

About the creators

Haupindi has been tutoring and assisting learners since grade 10 at St. Therese Secondary School in the south. He saw the gaps in education and thought to address them by tutoring students in grades 8 to 11 in mathematics, accounting and geography subjects.

"Working tirelessly, often during afternoon study times and weekends, I used every possible method to aid my peers," he said.

Through his consistent assistance to various learners, he gained the nickname 'Professor'.

A highlight of his efforts was in 2018, when his school was recognised as the best-performing school in geography across the ||Kharas Region.

His interest in coding started at the age of 17. "I quickly understood the transformative power of technology and how it can be used to solve complex issues," Haupindi said.

The two students are alike in sharing a passion for education.

Nanghonda Jr. has always assisted his fellow peers in understanding difficult concepts in school. "I’ve always been somewhat of a teacher’s pet, as I usually assisted my mathematics, English, and physics teachers to explain difficult things to my peers, which prompted them to refer to me as 'president'," Nanghonda said.

He went as far as teaching in one of his classes, as he felt the teacher was not fully capable of meeting the needs of learners.

Through his assistance, the high school that he attended, Hage Geingob, had the highest passing rate in English. Today, Nanghonda is still training the debaters at the school.

The two met at an Upshift Namibia boot camp that aims to empower the youth to start their own businesses. "I was inspired by Haupindi’s intense passion to change the world and his unwavering belief in himself," said Nanghonda.