INTERVIEW: AI will help rural pupils learn in language they understand, says Perebonilado Eradiri

In Nigeria and across many parts of Africa, students face immense pressure to succeed academically, often with limited access to effective study resources. As artificial intelligence (AI) tools gain global popularity, young innovators are now reimagining how AI can be harnessed to solve education challenges in practical, affordable ways.

In this interview with TheCable’s VICTOR EJECHI, Perebonilado Eradiri, co-founder of AI Examiner, shares how a weekend side project evolved into a study companion used by over 10,000 students.

He also speaks on the challenges of building AI responsibly and his belief that AI will democratise education for learners in Nigeria and beyond.

TheCable: What inspired you to create AI Examiner? Was there a specific problem you were trying to solve?

Perebonilado: Yes, it actually started as a personal challenge. There are three of us — me, Nengi, and Duke. Initially, it was just a side project. At the time, Nengi was in medical school, and you know how intense that can be with all the exams.

We were in the same location, and she was preparing for an exam. She wanted a way to test herself and see if she could recall what she had studied. She tried a few AI tools, but they were either outrageously expensive or just not effective. So I said, “Hey, I can build something simple for you over the weekend.” That’s exactly what I did.

I spent that weekend building a prototype. Not long after, people began using it. I posted about it on LinkedIn, and the traction started from there.

TheCable: There’s an ongoing debate about AI in education — some believe it enhances learning; others fear it might reduce critical thinking. What’s your take?

Perebonilado: I don’t believe it discourages deep learning. In fact, it can enhance it.

Students often struggle with information overload. They have so much to study and not enough time. Many end up cramming just to pass exams. What AI does is to help them understand, not just memorise.

When a student gets a question wrong, we explain and point them back to the exact part of their document from which the question came. That nudges them to revisit and understand the topic better. It’s not about spoon-feeding; it’s about guiding them toward clarity and deeper comprehension.

Most of our users are students, but we’ve had tertiary institutions and lecturers reach out as well.

Some use AI Examiner to generate questions for their students. The feedback has been positive — it saves time and allows them to offer fresh questions regularly. It’s proving useful on both sides of the classroom.

TheCable: What has been your biggest challenge in building an AI tool to enhance learning?

Perebonilado: One early challenge was speed; students want quick feedback. Initially, it could take up to six minutes to generate 40 questions, which isn’t ideal when someone is trying to revise efficiently.

Surprisingly, users are still stuck with us. I guess it was solving a real need. Now, we’ve cut that down to about 25 seconds — that’s more than a 14-times improvement.

Another critical issue was accuracy. You hear about AI hallucinations — where the model makes things up. That’s unacceptable in education, especially since most of our users are medical students. You don’t want future doctors learning the wrong information. So, we’ve optimised the system to reduce hallucinations to near zero.

Nengi has really been instrumental in our growth, especially within the medical community. A lot of our growth now happens mainly by users sharing the app with their friends, but that’s because she really sparked a flame within that community and brought the domain expertise we needed to build a product that fits their use case. In just the past two days, we grew by 200 new users. There was even a day we gained over 1,000 sign-ups.

One thing we’ve implemented is a feature that allows users to flag inappropriate or inaccurate questions. Once flagged, the question disappears from the user’s screen, and we receive the feedback on our backend to improve the system.

TheCable: As AI continues to evolve, how do you see AI-powered learning tools shaping education in the next five to 10 years?

Perebonilado: I’m genuinely excited. One of the biggest potentials is how AI can democratise education.

Let’s take international students, for example. I spoke to a doctor in Hungary recently; he mentioned that while everyone around him speaks Hungarian, medical school is taught in English. For someone who doesn’t speak English fluently, this can be a huge barrier.

With AI, we can now translate learning materials into any language. That’s powerful. Bring it closer home. In parts of Nigeria, especially rural areas, students may understand Hausa, Yoruba, or Igbo better than English.

AI can help them learn in the language they understand best, reducing the barrier to knowledge. We believe this is the future — making education accessible to anyone, anywhere, in any language.

I see tools like ChatGPT more as engines — powerful, but not fully tailored unless you package them into specific products. OpenAI did great with the chat interface, but to truly deliver value, these tools need to be shaped for particular use cases. The user interface and experience are what would really differentiate products in this AI boom. Duke Miller spends most of his time understanding how users interact with these tools and ensures that we deliver the best experience to users. Moreover, having AI enhance your application’s capabilities is great, but if users struggle to use your application, then that’s going to be problematic.

For example, if you’re a student, uploading your document and prompting ChatGPT every time you need questions is not efficient. Plus, once it generates the questions and answers, that’s it — there’s no timer, no explanations, and no reference to your source document.

We provide that structure. We support various exam formats — multiple choice, true/false, and even oral examinations — something general AI tools can’t simulate well. We also offer performance overviews, so after each session, the tool tells you your strengths and weaknesses by topic. This helps students learn strategically.