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Mathematical Capabilities of ChatGPT (arxiv.org)
2 points by ColinWright on Feb 4, 2023 | hide | past | pdf | discuss on HN

In plain words: Working mathematicians built new test sets of graduate-level problems to check how well ChatGPT and GPT-4 handle real research-style math. ChatGPT mainly helps by recalling facts, GPT-4 handles undergraduate work but fails graduate-level problems, staying well below a graduate student.

Abstract

We investigate the mathematical capabilities of two iterations of ChatGPT (released 9-January-2023 and 30-January-2023) and of GPT-4 by testing them on publicly available datasets, as well as hand-crafted ones, using a novel methodology. In contrast to formal mathematics, where large databases of formal proofs are available (e.g., the Lean Mathematical Library), current datasets of natural-language mathematics, used to benchmark language models, either cover only elementary mathematics or are very small. We address this by publicly releasing two new datasets: GHOSTS and miniGHOSTS. These are the first natural-language datasets curated by working researchers in mathematics that (1) aim to cover graduate-level mathematics, (2) provide a holistic overview of the mathematical capabilities of language models, and (3) distinguish multiple dimensions of mathematical reasoning. These datasets also test whether ChatGPT and GPT-4 can be helpful assistants to professional mathematicians by emulating use cases that arise in the daily professional activities of mathematicians. We benchmark the models on a range of fine-grained performance metrics. For advanced mathematics, this is the most detailed evaluation effort to date. We find that ChatGPT can be used most successfully as a mathematical assistant for querying facts, acting as a mathematical search engine and knowledge base interface. GPT-4 can additionally be used for undergraduate-level mathematics but fails on graduate-level difficulty. Contrary to many positive reports in the media about GPT-4 and ChatGPT's exam-solving abilities (a potential case of selection bias), their overall mathematical performance is well below the level of a graduate student. Hence, if your goal is to use ChatGPT to pass a graduate-level math exam, you would be better off copying from your average peer!

Simon Frieder, Luca Pinchetti, Alexis Chevalier, Ryan-Rhys Griffiths, Tommaso Salvatori, Thomas Lukasiewicz, Philipp Christian Petersen, Julius Berner
arXiv:2301.13867 · cs.LG, cs.AI, cs.CL · submitted Jan 31, 2023 · updated Jul 20, 2023
abstract · pdf · html · Added further evaluations on another ChatGPT version and on GPT-4. The GHOSTS and miniGHOSTS datasets are available at https://github.com/xyfrieder/science-GHOSTS

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