Recently, Li Yizhou made headlines for selling 50 million worth of 199-yuan AI courses in just a year.
His resume reveals that Li Yizhou hails from Changsha, Hunan Province, and holds a Ph.D. from Tsinghua University's Institute of Industrial Design and Design Innovation Methods. Despite having a background in design strategy and prototype innovation research, his 199-yuan AI course gained significant attention due to the concentration of talent from Tsinghua University in the field of AI entrepreneurship in China.
However, investigations by reporters from the "Science and Innovation Board Daily" found that Li Yizhou actually graduated from the Tsinghua Academy of Arts and Design and has no relevant background in AI or deep learning. A 2013 report on the Tsinghua University official website stated that Li Yizhou was a student at the Academy of Arts and Design, marking his fifth year as a doctoral student at the Academy at the time.
On February 21st, "Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily" sent an interview request through Li Yizhou's Douyin video account, but as of the time of publication, no response has been received. An FA professional told the reporter of "Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily" that they rarely contact Li Yizhou as he is currently not seeking financing. The reporter obtained Li Yizhou's contact information and made several phone calls, but there was no answer.
PhD from Tsinghua University Sells AI Courses
After ChatGPT became popular, it seems another "water-selling person" has made their first pot of gold.
Feigua data shows that Li Yizhou has sold approximately 250,000 copies of his AI course "Everyone's Artificial Intelligence Course" within a year, with sales totaling around 50 million CNY. The original price of the course was 999 CNY, but it is currently priced at 199 CNY.
Meanwhile, Li Yizhou has already gained a large number of fans on Douyin. As a financial and economic self-media figure, Li Yizhou's personal signature reads: Tsinghua University PhD, founder of three technology companies, financing totaling tens of millions, professional manager, proficient in solving AI artificial intelligence, business model, knowledge IP, and traffic problems.
From a PhD at Tsinghua University to the founder of three technology companies, and then to financing totaling tens of millions, and a professional manager, regardless of the "title," Li Yizhou's AI course seems quite attractive.
Buri, the general manager of Chuangdao Investment Consulting, said in an interview with the reporter that the reason why selling courses can make big money lies in the transformation from tangible to intangible of knowledge payment. "Every successful toC sale actually comes from capturing customers' fear or desire, or a combination of both."
However, in Buri's view, selling courses is not as easy as imagined. Even if various channels are promoted for half a month, it is not easy to attract paying users unless it's an ordinary blogger with a large fan base. From the perspective of input-output ratio, it is more profitable to spend one or two hours on a third-party platform.
On third-party video platforms, the reporter also noticed that each of Li Yizhou's videos receives thousands, or even tens of thousands, of likes. For the content of "artificial intelligence business opportunities," the number of likes reached 6093.
How can ordinary people make money through AI? According to Li Yizhou, there are three main paths: first, AI-driven content commerce. Bloggers can leverage AI to mass-produce videos, potentially hitting big, but the dividend period lasts only three months; second, TO B business. After mastering model tuning and keyword prompts, one can collaborate with companies to fine-tune a large model suitable for TO B companies and help clients with sales; third, opening accounts on multiple platforms using AI to create graphics, advanced videos, and exquisite materials, leveraging the traffic dividend period of 3-6 months to achieve precise harvesting.
In Li Yizhou's view, everyone needs to learn AI because it has unparalleled advantages in work efficiency.
Selling courses before three startups
Before selling courses, Li Yizhou often used labels such as entrepreneurship, investment, and worker to talk about his feelings.
Indeed, Li Yizhou has had three startups. According to the official website of Tsinghua University, Li Yizhou's entrepreneurial projects include the "Magic Mirror" app, the "WeiMi" app, and 12sleep Key Perception Technology.
Among them, the "Magic Mirror" app can issue sonic commands to the mirror, turning it into a "camera"; "WeiMi" treats people themselves as conductors, calculates the saturation of the skin's stratum corneum on the phone screen, and recommends which type of skincare product to use today.
12sleep Key Perception Technology should be Li Yizhou's true entrepreneurial endeavor. Data shows that Key Perception Technology has completed three rounds of financing: in 2016, Teda Star Venture Capital, Zhizhuo Capital, and Xia Ding Capital participated in Series A financing. From 2014 to 2015, Key Perception Technology completed several million dollars in Pre-A rounds, as well as several million RMB in angel rounds.
Teda Star Venture Capital's predecessor was the Tsinghua Entrepreneurship Park incubator platform, which provides services specifically for enterprises in the Tsinghua Science Park. With the support of institutions such as Teda Star, as well as being a Tsinghua-related entrepreneur, 12sleep Key Perception Technology attracted the attention of Lei Jun.
The "Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily" reporter noticed that 12sleep Key Perception Technology has entered Xiaomi's ecosystem.
In 2016, Lunar, an intelligent sleep sensor crowdfunded by Xiaomi, was a new product of Key Perception Technology. According to Li Yizhou, Key Perception Technology targets young people, and the household entrance for this group should be the bedroom. Key Perception Technology will open Bluetooth protocols to both smart and non-smart devices, becoming the "bedroom media entrance."
As of now, 12sleep Key Perception Technology still exists, with Li Yizhou as the actual controller. Another company, Beijing Yige Technology Co., Ltd., with Qichu as the general manager, is held by Beijing Yuemi Technology Co., Ltd., with Shangshi Capital also involved, holding a 9.9992% stake.
It is worth mentioning that Shangshi Capital has invested in Shuiqu Technology. Li Yizhou said, "After the startup company was acquired, as vice president, I was responsible for products and supply chain management and helped another Xiaomi ecosystem company that is preparing to go public, with sales exceeding 1 billion CNY in a year and a half."
AI course group suspected to be disbanded
From a Tsinghua Ph.D. to "the startup company being acquired," Li Yizhou's early experience can be considered smooth.
This time, the "AI course sold for 50 million CNY at 199 CNY" incident that aroused public curiosity pushed Li Yizhou into the spotlight. However, Li Yizhou's AI course group is suspected to have been disbanded. A screenshot from the internet shows that the One Boat AI Artificial Intelligence Practical Training Camp B has "unable to send messages in the dissolved group chat." Some netizens even said that Li Yizhou's AI course was a scam.
The journalist came across some of Li Yizhou's AI course content on Bilibili and found that the course actually provides an overview and explanation of concepts such as big models, AI, ChatGPT, and introductory knowledge.
Strictly speaking, Li Yizhou, a graduate of Tsinghua University's Academy of Arts & Design, is also a layman in AI professional knowledge. However, Li Yizhou's core themes are design and user experience, AIoT, entrepreneurial insights, and side hustle implementation.
Bu Rixin, the general manager of Chuangdao Investment Consulting, believes that AI courses are essentially taxing consumers' intelligence, capitalizing on their anxiety about the future and their desire for new knowledge.
"From the perspective of selling courses, part of it is about 'the hardships of entrepreneurship and financing logic', while the other part promotes 'financing can be sorted out within half a month after taking the course'. The difference between knowledge and emotions may lead to the success of the course. Originally, from a user experience perspective, learning is already exhausting, and who wants to pay to be exhausted? But the promotion of 'taking an AI course once to keep up with the times and not be obsolete' captures the modern anxiety," said Bu Rixin.
Li Yizhou also mentioned on his video account that regardless of whether ordinary people make money through AI, they must keep up with the times, otherwise their livelihoods may be at risk.
