Why AI Struggles with Basic Math (and How That’s Changing)

AEI ^ | 3/4/24 | John Bailey

[DallasBiff]

Large Language Models (LLMs) have ushered in a new era of artificial intelligence (AI) demonstrating remarkable capabilities in language generation, translation, and reasoning. Yet, LLMs often stumble over basic math problems, posing a problem for their use in settings—including education—where math is essential. However, these limitations are being addressed through improvements in the models themselves along with better prompting strategies.

[coloradan]

I have read exchanges in which the AI confidently gives a wrong answer to a question with a numerical answer, and then when it is told the answer is wrong, it apologizes and then confidently gives a different wrong answer.

[coloradan]

It’s quite ironic, because before AI, the one thing computers were really, really good at, is math.