SINGAPORE – 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.”

The bot is accessible via messaging platform Telegram. Students can either type out their questions or upload a photo of their homework. The bot is equipped to break down complex maths problems and solve them, unpack English comprehension passages and explain science theories and concepts.

Mr Goh’s Telegram bot answers up to eight AI queries daily. A weekly fee starting from $4.20 for 1,000 queries per month will kick in after that.

The Wise Otter’s website allows JC students to brush up on their knowledge on current affairs and essay-writing techniques for General Paper. Students get five AI requests for free daily, or they can pay a monthly fee starting from $16 for 1,000 requests .

After the bot was created and launched in April, he promoted it on online forum Reddit, which has a subgroup frequented by Singaporean students seeking advice on examinations.

Since then, The Wise Otter has garnered around 600 weekly active users – most of whom ask maths questions, he said, declining to reveal how many of them are paying ones.

Mr Goh admitted that about 10 per cen t of the answers provided by The Wise Otter are wrong, and the bot still needs tweaking.

In its current form, he added, The Wise Otter does not replace human tutors, who will still be needed for identifying and addressing recurring weaknesses in each student’s workings and understanding of a topic.

Students can use The Wise Otter bot to brush up on their skills in several subjects, such as practising conversational skills for an oral examination.

PHOTO: SCREENSHOT FROM THE WISE OTTER

Kaitlyn Ang, 16 , has been using the bot almost daily for three months to revise English and mathematics to prepare for her O-level examinations as a private candidate. She cannot afford a human tutor, but finds the bot to be as good as one.

She practises English oral topics with the bot, which guides her on what needs elaboration. She said she also gained a better understanding of trigonometry, which she had struggled to grasp in the past.

“It can provide helpful exam tips, explanations for questions I struggle with, and give feedback,” she said.

She acknowledged that the bot is not perfect, but said that the answers are better aligned with what her school teachers taught than answers from ChatGPT and Claude.

The use of AI in education dominated headlines in recent months due to its potential for academic dishonesty.

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To promote responsible academic use of the chatbot, OpenAI on July 30 rolled out a Study Mode for ChatGPT that uses a Socratic tutoring style to respond to students’ questions. The style emphasises guided discovery through questioning rather than giving direct answers.

Study Mode, which can be turned on or off, will eventually provide direct solutions if asked repeatedly for the answers.

Study Mode’s approach is aligned with The Wise Otter’s. For instance, The Wise Otter does not generate full General Paper essays for students. Instead, the bot provides feedback on how to improve written essays in ways that are similar to how human teachers work.

An example of how The Wise Otter gives feedback to improve a student’s General Paper essay.

PHOTO: SCREENSHOT FROM THE WISE OTTER

Mr Goh said : “For example, if you write an introduction and request a review, the AI will be able to give advice such as how to make a lengthy hook more concise. Students can learn straightaway with timely feedback, instead of waiting a whole week for the teacher to mark an essay.”

He has been able to make a small profit so far due to low business costs, but said it is not yet enough to cover his daily living expenses.

He does not see himself returning to a corporate job in the near term and is committed to improving The Wise Otter, noting that he has enough savings to last him for the next five to 10 years.

“Even if this fails, I would have the AI skills that will probably be useful in the future.”

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