Sliema startup’s AI ‘study buddy’ Ari puts Maltese brains first in global ed-tech race

**Sliema startup’s ‘study buddy’ AI promises to turn Malta into the Mediterranean’s smartest island**

The bell at the University of Malta’s Msida campus hasn’t even finished echoing across the quadrangle when a knot of students outside the library already have their phones out. But they’re not scrolling TikTok – they’re talking to “Ari”, a new AI assistant built right here in Malta that can summarise a 400-page economics textbook, generate a 10-question quiz on Kantian ethics and still find time to crack a joke in Maltese about last Sunday’s rabbit stew.

Ari is the flagship product of OPIT (Open Institute of Technology), a Sliema-based ed-tech company that officially launched the tool this week after two years of stealth development backed by €1.2 million in local angel funding. Part chatbot, part personalised tutor, Ari speaks Maltese, English and Italian, plugs directly into UM’s virtual learning environment, and – in a nod to the island’s endemic Wi-Fi anxiety – can work fully offline once a lecture slide deck is cached.

“Maltese students have always punched above their weight,” says OPCT co-founder and CEO Dr. Tanya Sammut, a former UM lecturer who still lives two streets away from the Valletta house she grew up in. “But we’re expected to compete globally on stipends that barely cover a week’s worth of pastizzi. Ari levels the field by giving every learner a 24/7 study buddy that knows the difference between a ‘ħ’ and a ‘h’ without autocorrect throwing a tantrum.”

Local flavour baked in
During a demo for Hot Malta, Ari instantly produced a mind-map of the 1921 Maltese Constitution, then switched to voice mode and debated whether Sette Giugno should be classified as a riot or a revolution – all while peppering its answers with phrases like “u iva, mhux hekk?” The cultural fluency is deliberate: OPIT fed the model 50,000 pages of Maltese-language texts, from Dun Karm poems to L-Orizzont archives, so students wouldn’t have to dumb down their queries.

Academic staff are already noticing the difference. “Office hours used to be dominated by ‘What’s the difference between a cohort and a case-control study?’” says Dr. Julian Caruana, who teaches public health at UM. “Now students arrive having grilled Ari for basic definitions, so we can spend time on critical thinking. It’s like shifting from ħobż tal-Malti to a sourdough starter – the same ingredients, but more time for the dough to rise.”

Community ripple effect
Beyond campus, the tool is filtering into Malta’s wider knowledge economy. MCAST has piloted Ari in its hospitality programmes, where students practise multilingual guest scenarios; St. Catherine’s High used it to generate differentiated history worksheets for SEC candidates; and Gozitan NGO EcoGozo is experimenting with an environmental-science module that recommends local field-work sites such as the salt pans of Marsalforn.

Perhaps most importantly, Ari is keeping Maltese brains on the island. “Every year we lose graduates to Milan, London or Dublin because they think the future happens elsewhere,” says Economy Minister Silvio Schembri, who attended Tuesday’s launch. “If our startups can offer world-class tech built around Maltese content, that narrative changes.” OPIT has already committed to hiring 30 new graduates over the next 18 months and is negotiating with Malta Enterprise for additional tax credits.

Not everyone is cheering. The University Students’ Council (KSU) warns that over-reliance on AI could erode academic integrity, while the lecturers’ union wants clearer guidelines on data privacy. Dr. Sammut counters that Ari never stores personal chats beyond 30 days and flags suspicious “essay-mill” prompts. “We’re not here to write your assignment on Caravaggio,” she laughs. “But we’ll help you figure out why he fled Malta after that tavern brawl.”

As the sun sets over the glittering Sliema creek, a group of Erasmus students sit on the Independence monument steps testing Ari’s Maltese tongue-twisters. Giggles erupt when it flawlessly pronounces “Ġieġi ġewwa Ġgantija” and rewards them with a hidden Easter-egg animation of Temple-period dancers. In that moment, Malta feels both ancient and cutting-edge – a place where 5,000-year-old stones share screen space with algorithms that promise to keep the Maltese language alive in the age of artificial minds.