Wharton professor who gave ChatGPT an MBA-level exam says AI will be an 'amazing tool' for education

• ChatGPT passed an exam from a Wharton business school professor, performing at a B or B- level.
• The professor who administered the exam told Bloomberg he was impressed by the AI's concise, correct answers.

A business professor who made headlines for evaluating the artificial intelligence chatbot ChatGPT's chances of getting an MBA recently said the technology has the potential to be "an amazing tool" in the world of education.

Christian Terwiesch, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business, told Bloomberg that upon reflecting on his experiment administering a business exam to ChatGPT last month, he believes the AI has potential to help teachers more efficiently educate students.

ChatGPT was released by OpenAI in November and has been garnering significant buzz for its use cases, drawing both praise for its sophistication as well as concern that it could end up replacing American jobs or becoming a tool for cheating among students.

Terwiesch told Bloomberg he was impressed by the technology, as the bot performed higher than average, producing B or B-minus level results. In his paper, he wrote that ChatGPT performs significantly better than he had expected when it comes to questions based on process or case studies that can be explained in a logical, concise way.

However, Terwiesch wrote in the paper that he found the AI struggled when performing math, sometimes making mistakes that Terwiesch called "relatively simple calculations at the level of 6th grade Math."

He also said that when it answers a question partially or entirely incorrectly, it responds very well modifying answers when prompted or given a hint by the person communicating with it.

In addition to Terwiesch's test, ChatGPT has also been shown to pass other high-level exams in experiments. Terwiesch told Bloomberg he understands the concerns that many people have about the technology and discourages students from using ChatGPT to cheat.

"We use exams or tests for the students to engage with some material," Terwiesch told Bloomberg. "But what if you go to the library and tell yourself, 'I'll just take the shortcut here and use ChatGPT.' That would be a pity. The idea is to be creative and think of ways to use the technology to produce and enhance engagement."

Terwiesch told Bloomberg he believes the added efficiency provided by the AI should be used in tandem with teachers to benefit students and make them smarter, rather than firing teachers and using the technology to fill in the gaps that are left over.