How Huawei is innovating with AI to transform education

The use of generative AI in education can be a controversial subject. On the one hand, some governments are encouraging teachers to use the technology as a time-saving device, lifting the burden of grading homework from their shoulders to focus on other tasks.

On the other hand, some educators worry about students’ use of generative AI in assignments and its potential impact on their overall learning.

Ultimately, though, to think of AI as a single, homogenous entity when used in education is shortsighted. There are multiple ways in which this technology can be used to benefit in-class learning, research, and more.

The rise of AI in higher education

The question of how AI is and should be used in education is in flux in many areas, but in tertiary education, a more solid picture is forming.

There are several areas where AI is already making itself felt as a useful technology, according to a Market Research Forecast. In academic research, generative AI is being implemented to speed up data analysis and pattern recognition. For example, researchers at the University of Oxford’s Department of Psychiatry are using machine learning to “speed up the process of analysing complex and varied real-world data and [assist] in developing prediction models for dementia”.

Meanwhile, in the classroom AI literacy courses, machine learning (ML) workshops, and industry collaboration are empowering and equipping students with the skills they need to be successful in an increasingly AI-enabled world.

This is an important life skill for students; knowing how to use this technology can open up new opportunities for learning within an educational environment, as well as giving them a head start when getting a job in a newly AI-powered workplace.

Giving educators time back

The University of Oxford is just one of many world-renowned higher education institutions making use of AI in its teaching and research.

At Huawei Connect 2025, hosted this September in Shanghai, representatives from several centers of education, including Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU) and Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, took to the stage to showcase how they’ve been using this exciting new technology in their institutions.

“AI-based, intelligent digital transformation has a profound impact on the teaching and learning process of our university, and AI models are changing the way we teach, learn, and manage,” Lin Xinhua, deputy director of the network information center at SJTU, told the Education Summit at Huawei Connect.

He gave an example of how his university is helping reduce duplication of work on the part of the academic staff through the AI-enabled Essay System for Department Management.

“Every year, 800,000 users access the platform, and the key philosophy of this platform is to reduce the workload on administrative management for faculty members,” said Lin. “Professors hate filling in tables, especially when they know the data is already in the system, so they don’t want to fill in the table again.

“Now we have AI technologies to enable them in this process. Upon production of a chart, we can use AI systems to accurately [collect] information of the project and have this information recorded in the system, so later, about 80-90% of the information is already available – the professors only need to review this information and add in the remaining 10-20%.”

The importance of advanced infrastructure

Research is another cornerstone of how Shanghai Jiao Tong University is using AI. Lin gave the example of a research group from the faculty of life sciences that was responsible for collecting sample data on deep-sea lifeforms and the new system used to analyze it.

He and the 50-person strong IT team of the university worked with Huawei to create an HPC platform that could fully utilize AI in research to achieve new breakthroughs.

Over the course of two years, from December 2021 to September 2023, the two organizations developed, built, and launched a new HPC resource called Zhiyuan-1. This Intelligent computing platform features Huawei’s Ascend AI processors and Kunpeng servers, with ModelArts AI development platform layered on top.

Zhiyuan-1, which took pride of place at the Education Summit as the Intelligent Education and Research Showcase, is the largest resource of its kind in any Chinese university, clocking in with 633 Petaflops throughput, with 75PB aggregated storage and an additional 20PB storage to come before the end of the year.

With Zhiyuan-1 completed, he and his team ensured the researchers both understood how to use it fully to analyze the samples they had collected.

“After two years of joint effort, four papers were accepted by [scientific journals],” Lin said.

Using AI to bolster human intelligence

When it comes to AI in universities, the aim is not to replace human learning and interaction, but to augment it. In the words of Lin, human intelligence (HI) will take the lead and AI will follow in a supporting role to “accompany the learning process”.

Humanity is at the very beginning of the AI revolution, and while higher education may have more experience with the fundamentals of it than most, this widespread use across faculties and support departments, by educators and students alike, is undoubtedly new. Learning how to use it to benefit us as humans, adapting it to our needs, is one of the most important things to keep in mind as we move forward into our new, AI-enabled future.