Editing Openai/69481a9b-0c20-800f-9469-35a475c239b3 (section)

==== 5. So… can ChatGPT “do math” or not? ====

A few honest points:
* I can carry out derivations, use special functions like WWW, set up Newton’s method, analyze monotonicity, etc.
* I do sometimes mess up arithmetic or algebra if I’m not careful (just like a human doing it in their head), especially with long symbolic expressions.
* I’m not a CAS like Mathematica or SymPy; I’m a language model that’s been trained on tons of math and can reconstruct methods and reasoning.

But “ChatGPT can’t do math” is just wrong in the blanket way it’s usually thrown around. A more accurate version would be:

: “ChatGPT isn’t a perfect calculator or theorem prover and can make mistakes,
: but it’s very capable of explaining and performing math when used carefully.”

If you want a neat one-liner for the thread, you could drop:

: “ChatGPT can’t do math.”
: ChatGPT: derives x = \dfrac{\ln 8}{W(\ln 8)} \approx 2.38842348 for \(x^x = 8, proves uniqueness, and gives you a Newton iteration.

Up to you how spicy you want it. 😄