LLMs Are the Ultimate Demoware

“Software” is a program that runs on your computer that allows you to accomplish a task. Software is “good” if it frequently allows you to accomplish sa...

Charlie Meyer's Blog

It's wild to me that, of all the things to call LLMs out for, this piece has chosen to include math tutoring. I've been doing Math Academy for a bit over 6 months now, going from (essentially) Algebra II through Calc II (integration by parts, arc lengths, Taylor expansions) and LLMs have been a huge part of what has made that effective:

* Clear explanation of concepts that respond to questions and reformulate when things bounce

* Step-by-step verification of solutions, spotting exactly where calculations have gone

* Instantaneously generating new problem sets to reinforce concepts

LLMs are probably not going to live up to all sorts of claims their proponents make. But I don't think you can ever have tried to use an LLM in a math course and reach the conclusion that it's "demoware" for that application. At what point, over 6 months of continuous work, does it stop being a "demo"?

So .. a person who doesn't know X, is using LLMs to learn X, yet is able to judge that LLMs are doing a good job at teaching X, even though the person doesn't know X?
You're confused. Math Academy is not an LLM.