MathGPT Platform Can Now Be Custom-Configured for Publishers, Math Instruction Providers, Even Institutions

PhotoStudy Parent GotIt Dramatically Expands MathGPT Plans and Unveils GPT-4 Capabilities

• By Kristal Kuykendall
• 03/15/23

The company building the MathGPT OpenAI-based chatbot to teach a specific math textbook today announced it has significantly expanded its plans — thanks to overwhelming interest from education organizations and math education providers — and will now allow its MathGPT platform to be configured to work specifically with a “variety of applications” in math education.

GotIt, the company behind micro-tutoring platform PhotoStudy and the MathGPT project first unveiled in January, said today that the expanded MathGPT Platform will be multi-modal and can be configured by a publisher or institution to work with almost any kind of math instruction technology or content, including “next-generation textbook publishing, video content publishing, personalized tutoring, teacher assignments and assessments, and even classroom teaching.”

MathGPT’s makers will allow its platform to be configured specifically for each ed tech publisher, software provider, or education organization, based on the partner organization’s instructional content and needs; the partner would then decide when and how to give its users access to its custom-built MathGPT platform, GotIt Chairman Peter Relan told Campus Technology. Each partner-specific MathGPT platform “will be based on OpenAI's recently announced ChatGPT API plus a layer of GotIt's proprietary AI models, training techniques, and human-in-the-loop network for extremely accurate and engaging content.” 

Publishers, ed tech providers, or other education organizations interested in delivering their content through a generative AI model via the MathGPT platform can learn more at mathgpt.photostudy.co.

With the new MathGPT Platform, students will choose their “video teacher persona” — some of the options offered as examples already built into the system are Ada Lovelace, Albert Einstein, Isaac Newton, and Benjamin Franklin — and then interact with the “teacher” through text chat or voice questions. The personas can be customized as well, and with licensing in place the options for the teacher personas could include any modern or historical character or real-life human, Relan said. A famous influencer who posts frequently about dogs might — if licensing were in place — be an optional video teacher persona for explaining math problems with dogs as the items being counted, as a simple example of the possibilities.

Following is a brief demo of an interactive video tutoring application based on an OpenStax algebra textbook, courtesy of MathGPT:

Students will be able to learn any topic relevant to the platform subject matter by asking their video “teacher” to explain math topics, answer questions, provide step-by-step help with homework, and or even conduct assessments including quizzes and practice problems, GotIt said. 

Through each MathGPT Platform, teachers “will get a dashboard to create assignments and get near-real-time assessments of their students who do their assignments through MathGPT,” the company said. 

“When we first announced MathGPT, we envisioned a personalized tutoring application based on ChatGPT, but the response from the ed tech industry was overwhelming, with requests for a platform for multiple applications. So we are delighted to announce the MathGPT Platform,” Relan said. “We are emphasizing access to any type of learning for any learner in the world, by letting them interact with any appropriate persona, historical or living, with appropriate credits or licensing, of course. We realize that the most engaging learning occurs when learners choose their mode of learning, with a teaching persona of their choice. In addition, we are going to support the textbook industry and the video production industry for content. Additionally, we are in conversations with teachers and school administrators about teacher tools as well to complete the MathGPT Platform.”

New Multi-Modal Platform Features in the Works

MathGPT will support GPT-4 that debuted earlier this week, even though MathGPT already plans to support ChatGPT 3.5, which costs less and is ideal for smaller publishers and ed tech providers seeking access to the MathGPT Platform, GotIt said. 

GPT-4 capabilities will be available in a premium version of the MathGPT Platform, the company said.

Some of the new multi-modal features unveiled today by GotIt include:

• As the MathGPT Platform's generative AI generates its explanations, practice problems, or questions and answers, a user-selected video persona will dynamically deliver the generated content.

• Users will be able to upload videos from appropriate sources, and MathGPT will be able to answer questions about the video’s content in chat, audio, or video. GotIt said that will include problems or assignments within the uploaded video that the student is expected to complete.

• Teachers will have access to a dashboard of the AI assessments conducted during MathGPT sessions, allowing educators to customize teaching, assignments, and tests. GotIt noted that the platform will include training for teachers on how to use MathGPT from a MathGPT AI chatbot.

MathGPT will work with its partners on the final delivery medium for each custom build, GotIt said.

GotIt's best-known public-facing ed tech product, the PhotoStudy app, is used by hundreds of middle school, high school, and college programs for live 1:1, on-demand, short tutoring sessions, with over 4 million sessions completed in a variety of STEM subjects, according to the company. 

In January, GotIt unveiled its newest project: a MathGPT chatbot built specifically to teach or tutor any specific math textbook. “Textbook publishers and teachers can now transform their textbooks and teaching with a ChatGPT-like assistant that can teach all the material in a textbook, assess student progress, provide personalized help in weaker areas, generate quizzes with support for text, images, audio, and ultimately a student customized avatar for video interaction,” the company said at the time. 

The PhotoStudy team started working with OpenAI GPT-3 in 2021 to develop MathGPT, choosing to focus on the “gateway subject” of middle-school-level elementary algebra to develop a “personalized math tutor” that any learner with any kinds of learning preferences or special needs could benefit from, according to a news release. PhotoStudy built MathGPT using the OpenStax online Elementary Algebra textbook that comes with over 10 chapters, 60 sections, and hundreds of learning outcomes. 

Some sample questions the MathGPT tool can answer:

• “I don’t know how to solve a linear equation…”

• “I have no idea what’s going on in class but we are doing Chapter 2. Can we start at the top?”

• “Can you help me understand how to solve this mixture of coins problem?”

• “I need to practice for my midterm tomorrow, through Chapter 6. Help.”

Each custom-built MathGPT platform will be available both as a web app and as a mobile app.

The company plans to introduce MathGPT as a web app and a mobile app with “one or two of the most popular math textbooks” for fall 2023, working with the publishers, starting with OpenStax Algebra.

Learn more at mathgpt.photostudy.co.