Cosmo's parent company launches AI-native application Gakku: "These capabilities are more important in the AI era"

Recently, Algorithm of Learning, the San Francisco-based edtech company that owns Cosmo North America Academy, has launched Gakku, a brand-new AI-native learning product targeted at teenagers aged 6 to 16, with a core focus on training their writing, oral expression and critical thinking skills.

Gakku is now officially open to the public, supporting access on iPhone, iPad, Android phones and the web, with its official website at gakku.ai. Its Slogan is "Write better, Speak confidently, Think deeper".(Write better, Speak confidently, Think deeper.)

After testing Gakku, Duozhi found that its first impression carries a distinct "American-style thinking" trait: with a full English interface suitable for all age groups, users can select the identity of "Student" or "Adult" after entering, the entire product design places Writing and Speaking in a very prominent position, and its built-in exclusive AI companion Raku also adopts a guided design... All these features point to the cultivation of independent thinking ability.

You can select your identity, learning goals and other settings before using Gakku

Raku supports full-duplex voice dialogue: just like talking to a real person, children can interrupt, interject and raise follow-up questions at any time, and Raku can respond instantly, instead of the one-by-one turn-taking mode of "you say one sentence and I reply". Significantly different from chat tools such as ChatGPT, Raku will not directly give standard answers. Instead, it guides students to conceive their own viewpoints, organize logic and complete their expressions by asking questions, giving prompts, questioning inherent ideas, and visualizing sorting out of ideas.

Gakku has a clear and definite learning path, but no matter for writing or oral expression, the content of each dialogue with Raku is personalized. Even for multiple-choice questions, there are three difficulty levels: easy, medium and hard for learners to choose from.

Annie Chen, co-founder of Gakku, studied at Princeton University, and later worked in Tencent in technology investment, and then developed innovative learning products at Yuanfudao. Before starting Gakku, she spent years researching how children can learn effectively under both the Chinese and American education systems.

In an interview with overseas media, Annie Chen said that with the growing capabilities of AI, it has become very easy to get ready-made answers. For the next generation of learners, abilities such as forming ideas, expressing intentions clearly, screening feedback, and commanding AI tools have become even more important.

On Gakku, learning can be advanced level by level like clearing a game, you can also talk to Raku, or compete with strangers... All these gameplay are connected by the core competence of "writing and expression".

When you open Gakku, you can see that there are four buttons on the bottom navigation bar: Map (Task Map), Cabin (Exploration Cabin), Plaza (Plaza), and Me (Profile), which can switch to different functional interfaces.

01

Learning Map: Level-based learning path, Raku-guided training

The Map is the task learning map. You can only unlock the next level after completing the current one in each learning session. This form is similar to the learning and growth system of Duolingo. The difference of Gakku is that the content of each session is not completely fixed. Every time users enter and have a full-duplex voice dialogue interaction with Raku, unique personalized content and experience will be generated, and learning ability is reflected by the star rating of each level.

The Map has two main lines — Writing and Speaking. At present, the Writing line is already very complete. The Speaking line is still under improvement.

In the Writing section, there is an "Archipelago" with different themes, divided into sections such as OPINION WRITING, LANGUAGE FOUNDATION, PERSONAL NARRATIVE WRITING, ARGUMENTATIVE WRITING, STORYTELLING, CREATIVE WRITING, INFORMATIONAL WRITING and other modules.

The system defaults to starting from the CREATIVE WRITING theme, and you can also choose the theme you are interested in by yourself.

Taking the first section "The Story Elements" in the CREATIVE WRITING module as an example: the system first presents an image, and Raku guides learners to describe and express with the "4W elements"; after the user finishes answering, Raku then guides the learner to express an event by themselves with reference to the "4W elements", the system will generate the corresponding image synchronously, and Raku focuses on encouragement throughout the whole process. After completion, the system will also generate an illustrated story from the learner's expression.

According to the official introduction, after subscribing to Gakku, in the interactive writing workshop, if a child wants to write an opinion-based composition, Raku will not directly help the child choose a position. It will guide students to review their personal experiences, weigh multiple perspectives, and slowly sort out their own opinions, ensuring that the final output is the learner's own intellectual achievement.

There is also an "Archipelago" in the Speaking section with different themes. The 3 major themes that have been launched include "WORKPLACE SOCIAL PLAYBOOK", SCHOOL LIFE, and EVERYDAY ENCOUNTERS, and the product shows that multiple more themes are coming soon.

The system defaults to starting from "WORKPLACE SOCIAL PLAYBOOK". Taking the first section "The Weekend Log" as an example, this session is to describe what you did over the weekend. There will be a page of instructions before you start. According to the introduction, Raku will guide learners to express what they did over the weekend and express their feelings. Users need to express in English, but it also supports mother tongue assistance including Chinese. In this process, learners can interrupt the dialogue and ask follow-up questions at any time.

Duozhi's experience found that during the learner's expression process, Raku will not interrupt the child, but naturally repeat the correct expression and give an explanation next to it synchronously, to protect the child's confidence in speaking out.

02

Exploration Cabin: Open space, free chat with Raku

On the Cabin interface, learners can chat with Raku according to the themes set by Gakku, or have a direct free voice chat.

You can also send an image to Raku and start a conversation based on it.

Raku also has context memory, so you can continue the conversation from where you left off last time.

03 Plaza: A variety of mini-games for English skills

On the Plaza interface, there are a wide variety of mini-games for listening, speaking, reading and writing, including daily challenges and a mini-game matrix.

For example, the daily challenge revolves around adjective order, users can choose easy, medium or hard mode, and select the correct word for the blank.

In the mini-game matrix, it provides mini-games corresponding to different English knowledge points:

Synonym Swap corresponds to Vocabulary, the gameplay is to replace words in the sentence with synonyms.

Idioms corresponds to Expressions, used to practice understanding the meaning of English idioms.

Adjective Order corresponds to Grammar, used to practice the arrangement order of multiple adjectives when modifying a noun.

Battle of Brains corresponds to Trivia. Its core gameplay is "Think fast, answer right": match with other users in real time for timed quick answers, test reaction speed and vocabulary, and some questions also involve mathematics or logic.

Word Quest is a word-guessing mini-game, click 5 letters to form a word, a green checkmark will appear if the word is valid, and the final valid letters will form a new word.

Gakku adopts a subscription system, the monthly subscription is 29.9 US dollars, and the annual subscription is 269 US dollars, users can enjoy a 7-day free trial. Its PLUS membership benefits include: full access to all Gakku courses and exercises, interactive writing workshop, real-time AI guidance and feedback, learning notes with progress and insights, as well as exclusive member avatars and rewards.

Algorithm of Learning also has another learning product called Cosmo North America Academy, it is a systematic online school led by real teachers. Cosmo has previously obtained full school-level accreditation from WASC, an authoritative American certification body. This means its curriculum system and academic standards are recognized by the mainstream international education system, and its learning records have certain credibility when applying for schools. Cosmo previously mainly served K12 students in the United States and Canada, according to reports from Hong Kong media, it has entered the markets of Singapore, Hong Kong and mainland China this year.

It can be seen that Cosmo is a relatively "heavy" product. Based on the team's more than ten years of experience in the education field, it can quickly achieve scaled revenue and brand trust, and its AI assistant is mainly used to fill the gaps after real teachers' classes; Gakku is a relatively "light" new product without the participation of real teachers, which explores AI-native learning forms and acquires incremental users. The two correspond to different learning scenarios and user needs respectively.

This article is from the WeChat official account "Duozhiwang" (ID: duozhiwang), author: Wang Shang, published with authorization from 36Kr.