Skip to content

ChatGPT Struggles with Advanced Math Skills

[ad_1]

Image of a student standing before a whiteboard filled with equations.

Teaching Math with ChatGPT

Learning high-level mathematics is no easy feat. However, teaching math concepts can often be just as tricky. That may be why many teachers are turning to ChatGPT for help. According to a recent Forbes article, 51 percent of teachers surveyed stated that they had used ChatGPT to help teach, with 10 percent using it daily. ChatGPT can help relay technical information in more basic terms, but it may not always provide the correct solution, especially for upper-level math.

Effectiveness of ChatGPT for Upper-Level Math

An international team of researchers tested what the software could manage by providing the generative AI program with challenging graduate-level mathematics questions. While ChatGPT failed on a significant number of them, its correct answers suggested that it could be useful for math researchers and teachers as a type of specialized search engine.

Portraying ChatGPT’s Math Muscles

The media tends to portray ChatGPT’s mathematical intelligence as either brilliant or incompetent. “Only the extremes have been emphasized,” explained Frieder Simon, a University of Oxford PhD candidate and the study’s lead author. For example, ChatGPT aced Psychology Today’s Verbal-Linguistic Intelligence IQ Test, scoring 147 points, but failed miserably on Accounting Today’s CPA exam. “There’s a middle [road] for some use cases; ChatGPT is performing pretty well [for some students and educators], but for others, not so much,” Simon elaborated.

Limitations of ChatGPT

At the testing level of high school and undergraduate math classes, ChatGPT performs well, ranking in the 89th percentile for the SAT math test. It even received a B on technology expert Scott Aaronson’s quantum computing final exam.

But different tests may be needed to reveal the limits of ChatGPT’s capabilities. “One thing media have focused on is ChatGPT’s ability to pass various popular standardized tests,” stated Leah Henrickson, a professor of digital media at the University of Leeds. “These are tests that students spend literally years preparing for. We’re often led to believe that these tests evaluate our intelligence, but more often than not, they evaluate our ability to recall facts. ChatGPT can pass these tests because it can recall facts that it has picked up in its training.”

Assessing ChatGPT with GHOSTS

Simon and his research team proposed a unique set of upper-level math questions to assess whether ChatGPT also had test-taking and problem-solving skills. “[Previous studies looked at] if the output has been correct or incorrect,” Simon added. “And we wanted to go beyond this and have implemented a much more fine-grained methodology where we can really assess how ChatGPT fails, if it does fail, and in what way it fails.” To create a more complex testing system, the researchers compiled prompts from several fields into a larger problem set they called GHOSTS.

Conclusion

ChatGPT is an artificial intelligence tool that many teachers are using to help teach high-level mathematics. While the software may not always provide the correct solutions, its ability to relay technical information in simpler terms can still be useful. Recent research has shown that ChatGPT is effective for testing at the high school and undergraduate level. However, its limitations must also be taken into account when evaluating its capabilities. Future studies, such as those using GHOSTS, can provide a more complex evaluation of ChatGPT’s strengths and weaknesses.

FAQs

What is ChatGPT?

ChatGPT is an artificial intelligence program that can help teach high-level mathematics by relaying technical information in simpler terms.

Is ChatGPT always accurate in providing solutions?

No, ChatGPT may not always provide the correct solutions, especially for upper-level math. Its effectiveness may also depend on the specific use case.

How effective is ChatGPT for high school and undergraduate math classes?

ChatGPT ranks in the 89th percentile for the SAT math test and even received a B on a quantum computing final exam. However, different tests may be needed to fully assess its capabilities for upper-level math.

What is GHOSTS?

GHOSTS is a set of upper-level math questions compiled from several fields to assess ChatGPT’s test-taking and problem-solving skills.

[ad_2]

For more information, please refer this link