ChatGPT and teaching maths, it’s not a calculator

With the rise in popularity of ChatGPT it seems like everyone suddenly has 17 revolutionary ideas of
how large language models (the foundation system behind ChatGPT) will change our lives forever. It
is a very powerful tool, especially when used correctly. This can, however, prove tricky; ChatGPT does love to go off on a pointless tangent or in some cases completely make up things it does not know. (AI researchers call this “Hallucinations”). There are countless examples online of ChatGPT completely misunderstanding a complex problem and talking utter nonsense. These are amusing, but many people are using this as evidence that large language models will never be of use in problems like this. Writing them off in this way is, I believe, a mistake.

I want to talk about teaching maths and large language models.

The answer should be 6,747,512. There we go, ChatGPT cannot do maths, end of discussion…

Well no, one example does not an argument make. People are using examples like this to argue that a large language model will never be able to do complex maths. My counter points to this; the output above is from GPT4, there was a GPT3, a GPT2 and many versions before that, they became more capable with each new version. Who is to say GPT7 won’t be better at maths than a university professor? A few years ago it would be unfathomable that something like ChatGPT could exist, but now it does. Maybe GPT7 will be as accurate as a calculator, maybe it won’t. I think it will get there; I also think that it doesn’t matter.

A large language model was designed to be used with language not maths. Complaining that GPT can’t multiply big numbers is like complaining your hammer is terrible at doing up screws… of course it is, it was designed for a different purpose. I have heard a teacher saying “GPT can’t do maths, so I think it’s a waste of time”. We have calculators for doing maths, we can use ChatGPT for so much more. As a GCSE and A-Level maths teacher who has to deal every day with the “When am I ever going to use this in real life?” question. I asked GPT “When is algebra used in real life?” It gave me 13 examples from financial planning to gardening, which I’ve learnt as quick-fire answers to this most common of questions. My colleague uses an LLM to create songs about a maths topic to popular songs and then makes the students in his classes sing them. They hate it, but they definitely remember the lesson. It can be used for more serious applications too; I asked it to provide alternative ways to teach factorising to a low ability student, it came up with 10 different ideas and explained why each one could be useful.

It’s not a calculator. If you try to use it like one you will be disappointed. It is a brilliant tool, which when used in the right way can make your lessons more engaging, memorable and better targeted. I sometimes feel like teachers are like old dogs, but this is a new trick that is well worth putting in the time to learn.