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ChatGPT has already wreaked havoc in classrooms and changed how teachers approach homework creation since OpenAI made its generative AI chatbot publicly available in late 2022. School administrators scrambled to detect AI-generated essays, while students instead frantically searched for ways to hide their synthetic writing. But by focusing on writing assignments, educators have allowed another big shift to occur on the periphery: students are now more frequently using AI to complete their math homework, too.
High school and college students across the country are currently trying out a free smartphone app that helps them complete their homework. Math homework using generative AIOne of the most popular options on campus right now is Gauth AppIt has been downloaded millions of times and is owned by ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok.
The Gauth app was launched in 2019 with a primary focus on mathematics, but soon expanded to other subjects such as chemistry and physics. Top of the smartphone download list Gauth ranked #1 in the Education category earlier this year, and students seem to love it: With hundreds of thousands of reviews, Gauth has a 4.8-star rating in the Education category. Apple App Store and Google Play Store.
After students download the app, all they have to do is point their smartphone at a printed or handwritten homework problem, make sure the relevant information is within the image cutout, and Gauth’s AI model will generate a step-by-step guide, often complete with the answer.
When we tested it on high-school-level algebra and geometry homework samples, Gauth’s AI tool didn’t produce A+ results, especially on the graphing problems, but it did work well enough to produce a low B or high C average on the homework we gave it. It’s not perfect, but it’ll be good enough to satisfy a bored student who’d rather spend their time doing literally anything else after class.
The app struggled with higher-level math problems, like Calculus 2 problems, so the current generation of AI homework-solving apps may be less useful for students further along in their learning journey.
It’s true that generative AI tools based on natural language processing are notorious for failing to generate accurate answers when presented with complex mathematical expressions. But researchers are hard at work improving AI’s capabilities in this area, and current AI homework apps are likely well within the reach of introductory high school math classes. Will also writes that researchers at Google DeepMind were ecstatic with the results of testing a large-scale math-focused language model (AlphaProof) on problems from this year’s International Mathematical Olympiad.
To be fair, Gauth is not positioned as an aid to cheating, but as an AI learning company that helps people “perfect their homework” and solve difficult problems.Honor CodeThe company’s website includes a “Gauth Usage Notice” that outlines appropriate usage: “Resist the temptation to use Gauth in a way that contradicts your values ​​or school expectations,” the website says. Essentially, Gauth is tacitly acknowledging that impulsive teenagers might use the app for more than just the occasional embarrassment, and it wants them to pinky promise they’ll behave.
A ByteDance spokesperson contacted by WIRED via email before publication but did not respond to a series of questions about the Gauth app.
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