How alai works

What alai is

alai is an iPad and web notes app with Ally, an adaptive AI tutor that teaches alongside you. Ally is a small yellow pixel character beside your page. The AI behind Ally is Claude, made by Anthropic.

From the Files home you can start one of four things:

• Homework help: you write out problems by hand, and Ally checks each step.
• Note taking: a notebook page for class, where Ally stays out of the way.
• Learn: you name a topic, Ally teaches it, then hands you the pen.
• Bring your notes: import PDFs, folders and notes from apps like Notability and Goodnotes.

Most of this page is about Homework help, where the tutoring happens.

A homework session, step by step

1. Bring the problem

Start Homework help and Ally greets you out loud. Upload a photo or a PDF of a worksheet, and alai reads the page, finds the problems and works out its own answer key. The worksheet becomes your page, so you write right on it. You can also add a problem by writing it, saying it or taking a photo of it.

2. Write it by hand

Write each step with Apple Pencil, the way you would on paper. When you lift the pencil for about two seconds, Ally reads the page: an image of the whole page and a close-up of your newest writing. Right after you erase, Ally waits a little longer, since you'll probably rewrite.

3. Ally stays quiet while you're on track

If every step so far is right, or you're partway through a step, Ally says nothing. A correct method that differs from the answer key still counts as correct, and so do skipped steps and a different order. Crossed-out lines and doodles are ignored.

4. At the first wrong step, Ally points at it and asks

When a written step is clearly wrong, Ally finds the first wrong line, highlights the exact term or line, and gives one short hint out loud, shown as a caption too. It's usually a question about the idea behind the step. Ally is set up not to say the corrected step, the corrected number or the final answer.

For example, under 3(x + 4) = 2x + 19, someone writes 3x + 4 = 2x + 19. Ally underlines the +4 and asks, “Did the 3 reach every term inside the brackets?” In a physics problem, a hint might be “In your force equation, how does the box's weight depend on its mass?”

If a step is too messy to read, Ally asks you to rewrite it or say it out loud.

5. You fix it

Ally waits while you fix the step. If you're still stuck, the next hint is smaller and more concrete, still without the answer, and Ally doesn't repeat the same line. If you stop writing for a while, Ally takes another look after about 25 seconds and may offer the smallest next step as a question. The Check my work button asks Ally to look right away.

Ally calls a problem solved once the answer is in the form the question asks for: a fraction reduced, a polynomial fully factored, a physics answer with its units. Then Ally asks whether you have questions before you move on. At the end of the session, Ally gives a three-line recap.

6. Ally remembers what helped

When you're signed in, alai keeps a learning history made of short codes: the topic, the mistakes you made, that a hint was shown, and what fixed it. It never holds your handwriting, transcripts or images. Next time, Ally can start from the slip that was tricky last time (“Distributing to every term was the tricky part last time. Let's start there.”), and when a slip comes back, Ally refers to how you fixed it before.

On your first problems, Ally tries four ways of helping: pointing at the page, talking the idea through, asking guiding questions, and showing a worked example of a similar problem. Once each has had a couple of problems, Ally keeps to the one that has worked best for you, and tries the others again now and then.

You can see what Ally remembers in the Memory drawer during a session. Practice my mistakes gives you two or three new problems for each past slip, each built so the same slip is the trap. Reset Ally's memory clears the history on every device, and your notes stay.

Talking to Ally

Press and hold the Hold to talk button and ask a question, such as why a step works. Ally answers out loud, with a caption. When you ask for help, Ally picks the kind that points you in a direction while giving away the least:

• a spoken hint,
• a fill-in-the-blank outline of your own next steps on the board, with the key values left blank, or
• a worked example of a similar problem with different numbers.

If a spoken hint doesn't land, Ally steps up to an outline, then an example. Ally can also draw on the board, for example the forces on a block. You can turn Ally's voice off in Settings.

Bringing worksheets, PDFs and notes

• Worksheets for homework: a photo or a PDF. alai works out an answer key for each problem it finds. A person hasn't checked that key, so Ally is set up to solve each problem independently first and to go with that careful solution where the two disagree.
• PDFs in notes: each page of the PDF becomes a page you can write on.
• Notes from other apps: Bring your notes imports Notability notes and Goodnotes notebooks with your handwriting kept as ink you can erase, move and keep writing beside. Notes from OneNote, Apple Notes, Evernote and other apps come in as PDFs. Folders keep their structure.

Other ways to study

• Learn: name a topic and Ally plans a short lesson, three to five steps said out loud and written on the board, then two to four practice problems checked the same way as homework.
• Study tools on any note: a summary, flashcards, a quiz you answer by hand that Ally checks, and games.
• Ask Ally: circle part of a note with the lasso and ask about it.

What Ally won't do

• Give you the corrected step or the final answer while you're working a problem. If you ask for the answer, Ally says the goal is to help you learn it and gives the smallest help that gets you moving.
• Do other work for you, such as writing an essay.
• Talk about things other than schoolwork. Ally steers back to the problem.
• Pretend to be a person. Ally is an AI tutor and says so if you ask.

There are three times Ally does say more. After you've solved a problem, Ally can explain the finished solution. In Learn, Ally explains the lesson directly. And when you've worked out an answer and ask whether it's right, Ally tells you, though Ally won't confirm a bare guess.

Ally can misread handwriting or make a mistake, so it's worth checking your final answer yourself. The guide to checking handwritten math step by step shows how.

Who it's for

alai is for anyone 13 and older in the US, and a parent can set it up for a child under 13. Ally tutors four subjects: math, physics, chemistry and Spanish. Spanish is the newest, and so far it covers present-tense verb conjugation. The study tools work on notes from any class.

How to get access today

• A free account: everyone needs one. Sign in with Google or Apple, with a one-time code sent to your email, or with your email and a password.
• An iPad or a browser: the iPad app needs iPadOS 26 or later, and the web app runs in a browser.

There's a free plan with every note tool, and paid plans start at $2.99 a month. The privacy policy lists what alai collects and who processes it. For help with your account or plan, see support or email support@tryalai.app.