Google Will Solve Your Kids' Math Homework. That's a Good Thing.

Google has announced a new technology, powered by an acquisition called Socratic, that will let students take photos of their math homework in order to get the solutions. Google says it wants the Lens-powered technology to help parents and caretakers who are homeschooling, likely for the first time, as a result of the global COVID-19 pandemic. Google's search engine is already crammed with autosuggestions that you can tell are seeking homework answers. When you search for a classic novel, the related searches are always things like "Darcy house name" or "Meaning of dance scene." Math is harder to Google because of the array of symbols the average person doesn't know how to type, and people's math anxiety to begin with makes it more difficult to measuredly seek out what they need.