ChatGPT’s newest homework helper will show you how math and science concepts work

Some of my strongest memories from growing up, although not my fondest, were struggling with my math homework at the kitchen table while my parents tried to help me in vain. Today, OpenAI hopes that ChatGPT’s latest features will help students (and parents) avoid such intense bonding.

The new interactive learning experiences, as the company called them in a blog post on Tuesday, aim to clarify complex ideas. New answers include interactive widgets, so you can adjust different numbers in a formula and see how the answer changes.

For example, if you ask ChatGPT to help you understand the Pythagorean Theorem, the chatbot will now do more than just tell you that it’s a formula used to calculate the side lengths of right-angled triangles. It will show a triangle model in its answer and prompt you to play with the lengths of the sides, allowing you to observe how the formula changes in real time. AI’s ability to explain complex STEM concepts should help students who struggle to understand how all the pieces fit together.

There is additional help for over 70 different math and science concepts, primarily from high school and college level coursework. The concepts come from algebra, geometry, calculus, and physics. It is now available globally to all logged in ChatGPT users.

OpenAI reports that 140 million people use ChatGPT for help with math and science every week. Last summer it enhanced its educational offerings with Study modewhich aims to make the chatbot act more like a digital tutor than an answering machine. The company said it plans to offer more educational-oriented features, but the debate over the role AI should (or shouldn’t) play in education is raging.

As in every industry, AI in education has supporters and detractors. Studies have found that students who outsource entire AI tasks, such as having a chatbot write an essay, don’t always use or build Critical thinking skills. Artificial intelligence programs are designed To do homework For students it is popular but disturbing. But smaller, more practical applications of AI hold promise for helping students learn, especially as they prepare to enter the workforce now Rapid adoption of artificial intelligence.