STEM

Startup Launches 'Built by Students for Students' Tech Incubator

• By Dian Schaffhauser
• 04/18/17

An education technology start-up that intends to offer a platform that uses artificial intelligence to help people break down their education goals into achievable segments has just acquired a bot created by a 14-year-old to remind users to do their homework. A "bot" is a program intended to act like a personalized assistant, sounding human and automating tasks.

myKlovr announced the acquisition of Christopher Bot by Canadian student Alec Jones just weeks after it was profiled in a BBC article. The student enters his or her schedule, and Christopher Bot prompts for new assignments, subject by subject. If the user answers "yes" to any prompts, the bot responds with a "friend-like" response ("that sucks more than a vacuum") and sends a "homework summary" at the end of each day. When the homework is done, the student notifies the bot, and the assignment is removed. When the student is on vacation, the bot goes quiet.

The acquisition kicks off a new program for myKlovr called "For Students, By Students." It's intended to encourage students to create innovations in education and development and make them available through an eventual marketplace the company will host.

In this case, the bot integrates into myKlovr's own goal of helping people "who have big dreams," as Founder and CEO, Gustavo Dolfino, noted in a press release. myKlovr is expected to launch in June 2017 with an AI goal-setting recommendation platform and the education-focused marketplace.