The following article shares highlights and insights from one of our Expert Series events, which are exclusive for Young Scholars and their parents.
Authored by: Po-Shen Loh
The scale of global societal problems looks daunting. One person, or even a small team, are minuscule relative to the number of people who need help. For example, since ChatGPT has exploded onto the scene, our children’s future employment prospects (and current educational experience, with ChatGPT-powered cheating) are in existential danger. There is an area close to mathematics, however, which devises solutions in which problems solve themselves even through self-serving human behavior: Game Theory.
The speaker is a math professor, researcher, and educator who transitioned to devise new solutions for large-scale real-world problems. He will talk about his experience going between the ivory tower of academia and the practicality of the real world, where he ultimately innovated fundamentally new approaches to pandemic control (https://novid.org) and scalable advanced live math education (https://live.poshenloh.com).
He will also discuss educational strategies that build relevant skills to survive this new era of Generative AI (e.g. ChatGPT). He has been working extensively on that problem, and draws from experience teaching across the entire spectrum, from under-privileged schools to the International Math Olympiad.
Po-Shen Loh is a social entrepreneur and inventor working across mathematics, education, and healthcare. He is a math professor at Carnegie Mellon University and the national coach of the USA International Mathematical Olympiad team. He has earned distinctions ranging from an International Mathematical Olympiad silver medal to the USA Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers.
Highlights
ChatGPT and its effects on the educational landscape: The rise of Generative AI is going to cause a massive amount of disruption in jobs and opportunities on a global scale. You can prompt ChatGPT to complete common tasks— such as writing policies, reports or even marketing jingles. There are lots of jobs that ChatGPT has the capability to do. In order to remain relevant, the next generation needs to learn in a way that is focused on facing unfamiliar problems. The new focus on education has to be on teaching people how they can invent, using their own ideas.
Saving the next generation through creative problem solving: The main problem Professor Loh has been working on currently is how to save the next generation from ChatGPT, which can automate a huge percentage of human jobs. Now, there must be a focus on teaching people how to think and create original ideas. To get people to generate new ideas, it is important to have them wrestle with challenging problems that they have not seen previously, and receive guidance from people who can take their ideas and turn them into solutions.
A revolutionary format of online math learning: LIVE, by Po-Shen Loh (https://live.poshenloh.com/) has revolutionized live video math education by giving middle school students an opportunity to brainstorm with brilliant math instructors in real time. Simultaneously, the program turns the teacher shortage upside down by teaching brilliant high school students how to optimize their interpersonal communication skills. LIVE, by Po-Shen Loh has created an ecosystem in which high school math geniuses learn from professional comedians, actors, and actresses, who help them build out powerful personalities. And in turn, they interactively stream the most engaging live video math lessons ever made to middle school students, worldwide.
Measuring impact through value creation: As skillsets shift as a result of ChatGPT, Professor Loh encourages students to do what they can to create value for the world around them. By using a mathematical or analytical mindset, one person has the opportunity to create something that can make a massive impact.
Things students can do to explore this topic further
LIVE, by Po-Shen Loh Courses: As a solution to the rise of ChatGPT, students can learn how to voice their own ideas they’ve brainstormed, with instructors who are so dynamic that they can adjust the lesson discussion to use those ideas to solve the premium. Learn more about the revolutionary way to learn math online: https://live.poshenloh.com/
Professor Loh 2023 Summer Tour: Join Professor Loh for his upcoming math tour, with the theme of advising parents and students on how to dramatically adjust (math) educational approaches in the era of ChatGPT. There are currently 60 stops planned for Summer 2023. These fun events inspire students to see math from a different angle and to embrace challenges. Learn more and register for an event near you: https://www.poshenloh.com/tour/
Resources
Professor Loh encourages parents to explore the capabilities of ChatGPT further by asking the platform questions: https://chat.openai.com/
Research on GPT-4’s performance by OpenAI: https://openai.com/research/gpt-4
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