TAL Education Is Developing A Large-scale Mathematical Model Called MathGPT

TAL Education Group, a Chinese holding company that provides after-school education and tutoring services for students, on May 5th revealed its plan to develop MathGPT, a large-scale mathematical model. This model is designed to cater to math enthusiasts and research institutions worldwide, with problem-solving and teaching algorithms at its core. The application based on this model is expected to be launched later this year.

TAL considers MathGPT as its primary project, which is headed by CTO Tian Mi. The company has made significant progress in team building, data preparation, computing power preparation, and technical research and development before the Spring Festival holiday this year. Furthermore, it plans to establish an algorithm and engineering team in Silicon Valley while recruiting exceptional AI experts worldwide.

Since the start of this year, OpenAI’s ChatGPT, a large language model, has gained worldwide attention. Following suit, Baidu and Alibaba in China have also launched their own large language models. TAL explained that while general language models excel in tasks such as translation, summarization, understanding and generation – similar to a liberal arts student with exceptional performance – they have limitations when it comes to solving mathematical problems. This is due to inherent characteristics of the large language model itself. Improving its mathematical ability requires the development of a new model.

The utilization of large language models across different industries is a pressing concern in contemporary society. In the education sector, Duolingo, Quizlet, and Khan Academy collaborates with OpenAI to optimize GPT models for improving their existing products. Chegg, an American online platform for extracurricular tutoring, introduced its AI chatbot called CheggMate in March this year. The product aims to offer more personalized learning experiences by leveraging new technology supported by OpenAI’s latest model GPT-4 and providing instant feedback on students’ progress.

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On May 5th, TAL’s rival NetEase Youdao released a video introducing its AI oral teacher developed for educational scenarios. This announcement coincided with TAL’s release of MathGPT. Unlike previous AI pronunciation which was monotonous and mechanical, the AI oral teacher is designed to have conversations with students, resembling a real-life teacher.