13-Year-Old Earns £2,100 in Three Days Using AI
A 13-year-old girl in China has successfully earned an income of 18,000 yuan (approximately £2,100) in just three days through an artificial intelligence (AI) based application she developed to help parents monitor their children’s study habits.
According to the SCMP, the girl, named Zhu Shuhan, is a second-year middle school student in Shanghai. Notably, she has no background in programming and only began exploring AI technology about a year ago.
Shuhan’s story gained significant attention after she participated in a national AI product marketing competition held in Hangzhou from 21–23 August. In the competition, she secured third place and received a prize of 5,000 yuan after competing against more than 50 participants.
Unlike typical technology competitions, this event did not rely on technical judging. Instead, participants were evaluated based on the revenue generated by their AI-based applications during the three-day event.
Shuhan’s application, ‘Zai Chang’ (translated into English as ‘On Site’), successfully secured 90 orders with total sales reaching 18,000 yuan. This revenue propelled her to third place in the competition.
Inspired by Personal Experience
Zai Chang is designed to assist parents in supervising children while they complete homework. The mechanism is straightforward: parents first upload a photo of themselves into the application. The system then uses this photo to present a ‘virtual parent’ figure on the screen while the child studies.
Utilising the camera, the system can detect when a child is playing with a mobile device or leaving their seat. If this occurs, the virtual parent figure provides a voice reminder to encourage the child to refocus on their studies. Once the study session is complete, the application also generates a ‘concentration report’ providing an overview of the child’s focus levels during their tasks.
The idea emerged from Shuhan’s personal experience. “My parents are very busy and do not have time to accompany me while I study. I often lose focus and secretly use my phone while doing homework,” she said.
According to Shuhan, many of her classmates face similar issues. Therefore, she wanted to create a digital parental figure that could accompany children during study sessions when parents are unavailable.
Developing an App with AI Assistance
Her limited programming skills did not act as a barrier. To develop her application, she simply explained her ideas and required features to a Large Language Model (LL_M) using her own language. The AI then assisted her in generating the necessary code.
From the design phase to the implementation of key features, the development process took only about three to four days. When encountering specific technical issues, Shuhan consulted AI-based programming tools.
This experience led her to view AI as a tool that can help anyone realise their ideas, even without deep technical expertise. “From this development experience, I realised that as long as you have a good idea, AI can make it a reality,” Shuhan asserted.
Choosing a Gentler Approach
Interestingly, Shuhan intentionally removed one feature from her original design. The feature, labelled ‘angry mother’, was initially intended to notify parents when a child lost concentration too frequently.
However, Shuhan disliked the concept, believing that an application should not make a child feel as though they are being ‘reported’ to their parents. “I do not like the act of ‘reporting others’ mistakes’. I want this application to be gentle and provide space for children to improve themselves,” she explained.
This approach demonstrates that for Shuhan, technology is not merely a tool for surveillance, but must also consider the feelings and independence of children.