The surge of DeepSeek continues unabated.

Technology giants, automakers, and emerging consumer enterprises have all announced the integration of the DeepSeek R1 large model, making it the current standout in the AI field.

The education industry is actively embracing this prominent trend.

Industry leaders such as NetEase Youdao, TAL Education, and Cloud Classroom have announced the integration of the DeepSeek large model into their software, content, and platform offerings.

iFLYTEK has also integrated the DeepSeek-Math large model and launched the AI math tool 'Spark Learning Assistance'. Similarly, Baidu Wenxin Yiyan (formerly ERNIE Bot) has integrated the DeepSeek-R1 model. While not officially announced, Baidu's Duer is expected to follow suit, given its parent company's move.

For both Duer and iFLYTEK, integrating DeepSeek is a challenging proposition. Embracing it undermines their self-developed large models, while ignoring it risks being outpaced by competitors. The integration of DeepSeek is the prevailing trend, albeit with some reluctance.

In the era of DeepSeek, educational tablet manufacturers like Duer must navigate this path thoughtfully.

DeepSeek Promotes Equity in AI Education

Faced with the overwhelming impact of DeepSeek, Li Yanhong and Liu Qingfeng have chosen to join forces rather than compete. After all, having an ally is always preferable to having an adversary.

However, embracing DeepSeek could be a double-edged sword.

For Duer and iFLYTEK, their prized 'self-developed large models' seem to have been 'downgraded' overnight, which is a significant loss.

The faster a company embraces DeepSeek, the less confident it may be in its proprietary technology. Despite investing heavily in self-developed large models, these companies may now need to focus on leveraging DeepSeek's open-source technological achievements for monetization.

Making profits is not a shameful endeavor.

However, in the education sector, the more actively a company embraces the open-source DeepSeek, the less likely it is to have exclusive competitiveness.

Players in the AI educational hardware market can be broadly categorized into two groups: technology-focused players like Duer AI and iFLYTEK, which highlight large model technology, and content-focused players like Xiaoyuan Learning Tablet and NetEase Youdao.

With the advent of DeepSeek, the advantages of pure AI players have been 'equalized'.

Duer's Wenxin large model learning tablet Z30 is priced at 6699 yuan, which is not inexpensive. iFLYTEK's AI learning tablet X1pro costs 3999 yuan, while the T30Pro retails for a staggering 9999 yuan. In 2024, the per capita disposable income of residents was only 34707 yuan, averaging less than half the price of the Z30 large model learning tablet per month.

The high prices of Duer and iFLYTEK's educational tablets are largely attributed to their AI teachers.

By branding their products as 'AI teachers' and endorsing them with their AI technology, these companies can charge a premium. After all, they have invested heavily in large models and need high profits to 'recoup their losses'.

However, no one anticipated that Duer and iFLYTEK's well-laid plans would be disrupted by DeepSeek.

DeepSeek is open-source technology, meaning that Duer and iFLYTEK can utilize it directly, saving substantial research and development costs. If they adopt DeepSeek in the future, will it still be justified for Duer's Z30 to sell for over 6000 yuan and iFLYTEK's T30Pro to sell for over 9000 yuan? The premium seems excessive.

After all, DeepSeek is open-source, and everyone has become a 'middleman'. The training cost is now negligible compared to before. Packaging a DeepSeek-based model under a brand and selling it at such a high price would be inappropriate. It would be better to offer a significant price reduction and pass on the benefits to parents, as educational tablets on the market are still too expensive.

Besides Baidu and iFLYTEK, NetEase Youdao, TAL Education, and Cloud Classroom have also integrated open-source DeepSeek. The so-called AI teachers are no longer exclusive selling points for Duer and iFLYTEK. Instead, content-focused players may gain an advantage after bridging the technology gap.

It's akin to when the Trisolarans attempted to suppress humans through technological superiority, but their technological blockade failed. Subsequently, a wave of technological advancements by humans bridged the entire technology gap.

DeepSeek poses a 'dimensionality reduction strike' to all large model educational hardware manufacturers.

For both Duer and iFLYTEK, no matter how much the technology-focused players promote AI teachers, it is no longer meaningful. This is similar to how automakers still promote 0-100 km/h acceleration in the era of new energy, which is largely irrelevant. This wave of AI technology equity makes the 'teach without discrimination and teach students in accordance with their aptitudes' concept of AI large models replicable. The label of AI teachers may struggle to capture users' attention.

This implies two things:

First, technology-focused manufacturers need to explore new user benefit points.

From the user's perspective, purchasing Duer or iFLYTEK educational tablets is primarily for their large model capabilities. Now that everyone has access to DeepSeek, what reason is there to buy Duer or iFLYTEK? This question deserves reflection.

Second, content-focused manufacturers will have more pronounced late-mover advantages.

Later entrants such as Youdao, Xiaoyuan, TAL Education, and Cloud Classroom may enjoy late-mover advantages. The landscape of the AI educational hardware sector has become more dynamic.

Using the 'Trisolaran mindset', imagine when the Trisolarans' technological superiority disappears. With thousands of years of strategic experience, would humans not turn around and launch a 'dimensionality reduction strike' against the Trisolarans?

In the educational hardware sector, there has been ongoing debate about whether technology or content is more important. Now that everyone has integrated DeepSeek, the competitive advantage of content-focused educational hardware brands will be further highlighted.

Duer and iFLYTEK do not have a strong content advantage, so how they will compete with rivals is crucial.

Market Logic of AI Educational Tablets: Emotional Value > Educational Value

I have always believed that whether a child learns well or not is not determined by a learning tablet or any other tool. As a parent of two children, I have never bought any AI learning tablet or similar products; they are simply unnecessary.

Education is results-oriented. Rather than spending a lot of money on a 'tablet-like device', it might be more practical to hire a college student as a tutor.

Let's be honest, both of us have grown up from our student days and understand that 'learning goes against human nature'. Children's natural instinct is to play.

Therefore, in education, no tool can be as effective as a good teacher's influence through words and deeds, or the subtle influence of parents themselves.

Everyone understands this logic, but why do we still feel the urge to buy Duer learning tablets, iFLYTEK learning tablets, or various dictionary pens when we see them?

The reason is simply four words: emotional value.

Having observed the smart education hardware industry for many years, the most striking thing I have noticed is that almost all smart education hardware products targeting consumers are designed to meet parents' emotional needs.

From a psychological perspective, this emotional value is essentially a 'compensation mechanism'.

For instance, when parents are too busy at work to care about their children's learning, they buy an 'AI learning tablet' and hire a 'large model teacher' for their children. It seems like they care about their children's learning, but essentially, it is a remedial measure to address the 'lack of time to care about their children's learning'.

Whether this 'remedy' is effective is not important. What matters is that several thousand yuan have been spent, alleviating parents' guilt.

This compensation mechanism is common. For instance, during the Spring Festival, the business of mid-to-high-end clothing for middle-aged and elderly people in many counties is booming. The reason is that children who earn money in big cities return home and buy expensive clothes for their parents to compensate for their lack of companionship.

Whether it's AI learning or the business of mid-to-high-end clothing for the middle-aged and elderly in counties, they are, in a sense, 'indulgences' for modern middle-class people.

From the perspective of educating children, learning tablets that hold emotional value for parents may not be 'good teachers' in their children's learning lives. On the contrary, certain functions on learning tablets may even become 'bad teachers'.

I remember a parent once revealed online that there was distorted history and other content that violated mainstream values on their child's iFLYTEK learning tablet. At that time, iFLYTEK's chairman Liu Qingfeng responded that the partner had launched the relevant content without review during the trial period and made rectifications.

Similar incidents have also occurred with Duer.

Last September, a user asked a children's smartwatch equipped with Duer AI, 'Are Chinese people honest?' and received the response, 'Chinese people are the most dishonest and hypocritical people in the world.' The watch's staff said that the content came from a third-party Duer App and was being investigated for rectification.

Judging from past events, the biggest potential problem with educational hardware products may not be technological but rather content-related and related to value guidance.

Optimistically, with the integration of more mature DeepSeek, such issues may be better resolved. However, as DeepSeek becomes more deeply integrated into the education sector, the value of products like learning tablets seems less significant.

On one hand, learning tablets integrated with DeepSeek essentially become terminal entry points. However, children now spend much more time on regular tablets than on learning tablets. Therefore, the entry value of learning tablets is easily replaceable.

On the other hand, in terms of scenarios, compared to smart devices like tablets, learning tablets can be taken to school. But as schools gradually integrate DeepSeek in the future, there may be no need for them. The application of AI education technology in schools may be more effective.

Regarding the application of large models in education, my consistent view is that the true value of AI education lies not in the C-end but in the B-end and G-end.

Using the Tianyancha APP to search for educational hardware and retrieve large high-tech enterprises yields over 300 companies. A considerable number of these companies operate in the B-end and G-end.

However, in terms of brand scale and influence, Duer, iFLYTEK, and others have more advantages.

The reason may be that from a business logic perspective, AI education business in the B-end and G-end is far less profitable than in the C-end. Business is all about scale. The C-end electronics consumption sector naturally has a larger market space than selling technical solutions in the B-end.

Therefore, in terms of revenue and profit, there is more potential for imagination in C-end educational hardware products.

The reason why there are so many advertisements for learning tablets on the market is that manufacturers have sufficient advertising budgets. They not only invest in online advertising but also place elevator advertisements offline, one after another.

Whether it's an 'AI large model teacher' or an AI tutor, the perception of 'education as a rigid demand' is anxiety created by advertising. What business is most profitable? Anxiety-driven businesses and emotional businesses are the most profitable.

If AI technology + education can stimulate the 'pushy parenting' anxiety of parents, it can be a lucrative business. However, as brands bravely stand at the forefront of the AI wave, we parents should remain calm. After all, the wave of DeepSeek has only just begun, and the true upheavals in the education industry are still brewing.

What changes can DeepSeek bring to education?

Let's wait and see.