Fund at the First Pitch finale during the XIN Summit: a friendly, child-oriented AI interactive fish tank designed for early childhood education.

      Credit: TechNode

      At today’s XIN Summit, SeaPal stood out as one of the key highlights of the Fund at First Pitch finale, kicking off the event with its AI-driven early childhood education product and quickly grabbing the audience's attention. Alongside SeaPal, four other startups from the frontier technology sector were also showcased: Sengine AI, BIAI, Fluorion, and Yuanmeng Interstellar.

      While these five companies operate in diverse fields, SeaPal left the most impactful first impression. Its presentation highlighted a warm, human-centered approach to utilizing technology for real-world challenges, effectively setting the tone for the session.

      More generally, this year’s Fund at First Pitch finale illustrated a common goal among a new wave of Chinese startups: to push technological boundaries while actively pursuing international markets, looking for unique entry points and sustainable competitiveness globally.

      AI interactive fish tank SeaPal for children aged three to six

      Aquarius Tech, a nascent team dedicated to early childhood education, introduced its first product at the summit: SeaPal, an AI interactive fish tank intended for children ages three to six. By integrating ergonomics, behavioral habits, and natural learning environments, SeaPal enables children to cultivate empathy, observational skills, and a fundamental understanding of science through the approachable experience of caring for fish.

      The team asserts that in an age of increasingly capable AI, the next generation requires not only rote knowledge or procedural skills but essential human qualities that technology finds difficult to replicate—such as empathy, emotional insight, and communication. Building on this idea, they merge “life education” with AI support, allowing children to carry out activities like changing water, observing fish behavior, and recognizing the needs of living beings through contextual prompts.

      To facilitate independent fish care by children, the team meticulously engineered SeaPal’s design. The tank height accommodates children’s arm lengths, the water-changing device is lighter than two mineral water bottles to ensure that three to six-year-olds can manage it, and each water change replaces one-quarter of the tank’s volume for both safety and ease of use.

      In addition to AI-guided interaction, SeaPal features emotion recognition and proactive companionship elements. A front-facing camera detects children’s expressions and feelings, prompting the AI to respond with stories, educational materials, or language cues. For busy families, the system logs daily interactions and shares them with parents, helping them gain insights into their child’s emotions and interests.

      Aquarius Tech emphasizes that SeaPal is not just an AI conversation tool, but a lasting educational platform that fosters natural learning environments at home. By incorporating landscape creation, hands-on design modules, and natural science content, it encourages children to develop practical skills, aesthetic appreciation, and creativity while engaging with life through observation and care.

      Looking ahead, the team envisions that this “life education + AI guidance” model could extend to include other low-maintenance small animals, like hamsters or starfish. This would broaden natural education from a single product to a comprehensive series of scenarios and progressively establish a thorough early childhood education system.

      Jessie Wu is a tech reporter based in Shanghai, covering consumer electronics, semiconductors, and the gaming industry for TechNode. Connect with her via e-mail: [email protected]. More by Jessie Wu.