Hiraia, an AI science tutor that runs on Android phones without an internet connection after setup, has started its first classroom pilot at Calapacuan Elementary School in Zambales.
The pilot class launched on September 25, according to the project’s website. Creator Luis Buenaventura told Gadget Pilipinas that the class has 35 pupils. He said the first cohorts across participating schools will cover about 150 students.
The pilot versions of the app collect usage data. Buenaventura told Gadget Pilipinas that he changed the app so it reads activity data from each device and session during the trial. He said the schools were informed, and that he plans to switch the data collection off after the trial.
The version on Hiraia’s website says it collects no information and requires no account.
Teachers in the pilot can use Tala, a separate app for the teacher’s phone. Students join a class by scanning a QR code. Tala then collects their card views and quiz activity over Bluetooth and Wi-Fi in the same room, without using the internet.
Hiraia is built around flash cards rather than a chat window. Each card pairs one science fact with an illustration, followed by short quizzes and recap cards. It covers Grades 3 to 10 and is based on DepEd’s MATATAG science curriculum.
The app runs a 2-billion-parameter language model derived from Alibaba’s Qwen 3.5-2B. It is further trained on Filipino and Bisaya text. The project says the tutor answers only from its bundled fact bank and declines questions it cannot ground in that material.
The app needs an internet connection once. On first launch, it downloads about 1.7GB of model and related files, and it works offline after that.
Hiraia requires Android 10 or newer and is installed as an APK from hiraia.org rather than the Play Store. The project recommends 4GB of memory for AI-generated cards. Phones with less memory can still use the built-in card library.
The app supports Tagalog, English, and Bisaya. Buenaventura told Gadget Pilipinas that Bisaya is the least developed of the three because good public-domain Cebuano material is scarce. The pilots focus on Tagalog and English.
Hiraia was developed with a PHP 1 million research grant from the Tether Foundation, BitPinas reported. The app also runs on QVAC, Tether’s software kit for running AI on devices.
Buenaventura told BitPinas that he hopes to bring Hiraia to public schools as a supplemental tool. He said the aim is “not to replace teachers, but to reinforce classroom learning with some personal tutoring at home.”
The app is in early alpha and is not affiliated with DepEd.