AI and automated decisions

This page lists each place EduPress uses AI or lets a computer decide something, what goes to which outside service, and where a person decides.

At a glance

Tyra, the study tutor

In short: Tyra tries EduPress's own study material first, and asks an outside AI model only when that doesn't answer you.

• What it does. Tyra answers the study questions you type or photograph in the app, and makes practice quizzes. A parent or guardian can use Tyra for their child only during a session they start, once the child has accepted their link and the child's school has verified it. The child is told when a session starts.
• Free messages and packs. Tyra gives a student 50 free messages a day. You can buy more with MTN or Airtel mobile money: 100 messages for UGX 5,000, 300 for UGX 12,000, or 1,000 for UGX 35,000.
• Where answers come from. Tyra first looks for an answer in EduPress's own material, such as answers teachers have approved. When nothing there fits, it asks Anthropic's Claude model. If Anthropic is briefly unavailable, the same request can go to OpenAI instead. EduPress can also set Tyra to answer only from its own material.
• What the outside model is sent. Your question and your last 10 messages with Tyra, your first name and class, and Tyra's notes about you: things you've told it (such as your favourite subject), how many sessions you've had, your study streak, the topics you find hard or easy, how well you know each topic, and your learning style. It's never sent your surname, your username or your school. A photo goes to the model only to answer that question: EduPress shrinks it and removes its location data first, and keeps no copy.
• What your school sees. Your school's team can see a summary of how each pupil uses Tyra: class, study streak, number of sessions, recent topics, what they find hard and easy, how well they know each topic, suggested next steps, and learning style. They can't see your conversations.
• Who decides. Tyra makes no decision about you. Its answers can be wrong, so check them against your notes and your teachers. You can clear your conversation with Tyra at any time.

Checks on what schools publish

In short: this check only runs when EduPress turns on review, and it can publish some school content without a person looking first.

• When it runs. EduPress has four review switches: school posts, exam results, events and community posts. All four are off until a system admin at EduPress turns one on. While a switch is off, a school's items go live straight away and nothing is checked.
• What it reads. An AI model run by NVIDIA reads what a school's team publishes: posts, events, exam results, and the posts its staff make in a community. It's sent the item's title and words, its links, its location and tags, and the school's name. It isn't told who wrote it.
• What it can do. It publishes a school post, an event or a staff post in a community by itself when it approves it with at least 90% confidence. It can send any of these back to draft with a note saying why.
• When a person decides. A person always publishes exam results. Anything with a photo, a video, a document, a slideshow or an embedded player waits for a person, because the check reads text only. So does anything it can't read in full, any text that tries to give the checker instructions, and anything it's unsure about.
• If it fails. When the service doesn't answer, the item waits for a person. Nothing is published because the check broke.
• A person has the last word. Once a person has approved or returned an item, the check changes nothing about it.
• What it never reads. Posts members write in a community, and personal posts on a member's profile, never go to the check. When review is on for them, they wait for a person.

The guide for schools has more on review.

Recommended posts

In short: an outside service turns school posts into numbers, and EduPress's own server uses those numbers to order your feed.

• What it does. EduPress orders school posts in the recommended feed and picks related posts to show under a post.
• What OpenAI is sent. The title and text of each published school post. Nothing about you or other readers is sent.
• What EduPress uses. On its own server, EduPress weighs how recent a post is, how many people viewed, liked, shared or saved it, how often people hid it or stopped reading early, and how close it is to posts you've engaged with.
• Who decides. It changes the order of posts only. It never removes a post or decides anything about you.

Reading your CV

• What it does. When you ask, EduPress reads the CV you uploaded (.docx or PDF) and suggests entries for your profile, such as jobs, skills and certifications.
• What Anthropic is sent. The text of your CV, up to 20,000 characters.
• Who decides. Nothing is saved by the reading itself. You choose which suggestions to add to your profile.

Drafting school posts

• What it does. A team member who can write posts can ask for suggested headlines, a suggested post, or a summary of the school's figures. It's available on school plans that include it.
• What NVIDIA is sent. What the team member types: a topic, a draft or figures, and the school's name. The model is told never to name or describe a pupil and never to make up facts.
• Who decides. These are suggestions. Nothing is published, scheduled or sent until the team member does it.

Filling in a school's profile

• What it does. When a school registers, or when EduPress adds a school, the person can press Fetch to fill in the form from the school's website.
• What NVIDIA is sent. Up to 8,000 characters of text from the website, with its title and description.
• Who decides. The answer only fills in the form. The person checks and changes it before sending, and EduPress staff review every school registration.

Voice

EduPress's server can turn a spoken question to Tyra into text with OpenAI, and read Tyra's answers aloud with ElevenLabs or Cartesia. Neither the EduPress app nor the website uses this today: the microphone in Tyra is switched off, so no recording is sent.

Other decisions made by rules

These follow fixed rules rather than AI:

• Reports. A post goes back to draft, and a comment on a school's post is hidden, once 3 people report it. An account is never restricted by reports alone. See Child safety and safeguarding.
• Proving who you are. A student who signed up in the app and hasn't proved who they are within 30 days has their place in the school's community paused. See Identity checks.
• Age. When EduPress can't tell someone's age, it treats them as under 18. See Keeping young people safe.

Questions

Your data download includes your conversations with Tyra and what Tyra remembers about you. To ask about any of this, write to EduPress support. The address is on the Contact us link.