Although it has been around for a few years, I recently encountered Photomath by Blink. This app leverages the company’s OCR technology for mobile device cameras (now called a Machine Vision Engine) to input a math equation and “instantly” solve it, and display the solution as multiple steps. Originally designed with an on-device math engine, it now leverages cloud computing to process the input data online, which now enables the app to tackle more challenging and complex equations (there is, of course, a subscription-based “pro” version that is the most powerful iteration). I can see a potential for this sophisticated Vision Engine to be adapted to processing a variety of inputs that could be sent to a variety of online AI engines (chatbots, images generators, etc) for analysis and returned content.
This is an exciting technology that fits within the category of DIY Learning, as well. It gives students a chance to receive guided help in math problems in a time or place in which they would not have access to help otherwise.
Agree with you it might not give correct steps to solve the problem but it gives the correct solution. That’s why the teachers will always be needed.
Tragically, my students used this to DO their work, rather than CHECK their work, and the results of this really showed clearly on their tests, as they weren’t actually using this as a way to check their knowledge, but rather as a way to speed up homework completion. Also, one of the math teachers at my school loves to show students where PhotoMath is just plain wrong, and corrects the solutions given. So while not perfect, it is a useful tool if you are stuck, but I like to try to make my students far more resilient and willing to keep trying without resorting to instant gratification of having the step by step solution handed to them before they are forced to think through the problem. It sometimes gets used as a shortcut that eliminates so much of the deeper understanding that higher math requires.