Former data analyst creates AI tutor for schoolchildren

The bot, accessible via Telegram, can help tackle maths, English, sciences

- Sarah Koh

Growing up, Mr Jotham Goh had always dreamt of having an on-demand artificial intelligence (AI) tutor so he would have more time to rest after school.

"I had three to four tuition classes weekly after school. I dreaded them as I still had to go even if I was tired," said Mr Goh.

When the 33-year-old quit his data analyst job in 2024 to tinker with AI, his natural inclination was to revisit his childhood ideas.

In April, he launched The Wise Otter – an AI tutor to help primary, secondary and junior college students with mathematics, English, chemistry, physics and biology.

The tool comes amid increasing use of AI in the education sector. It competes with mainstream tools such as OpenAI's ChatGPT (of which an update was rolled out on Aug 8), Google's Gemini and Anthropic's Claude.

Mr Goh, who graduated with a finance degree from the Singapore Management University in 2016, said: "The Wise Otter is more tailored to the needs of Singapore students. The Wise Otter is trained on hundreds of pages of past-year examination papers, assessment books and model answers from local teachers.

"For a subject like English, I codified the syllabus and the grading criteria used in the local school system, which is why the bot is more tailored to the needs of Singapore students. The bot is able to spot mistakes made by students like how a teacher would, such as when they don't follow a certain structure."