AI Homework Help Raises Grades But Wrecks Exam Scores
Via The Economist
The Story
Artificial intelligence helps students finish homework faster and score higher on assignments, but new research shows it can quietly damage exam performance.
Economists David Stromberg of Stockholm University with Victor Lei and Wu Yanhui of the University of Hong Kong tracked nearly 27,000 Chinese pupils aged 12 to 18, roughly 80 percent of whom used chatbots such as Doubao and DeepSeek.
After six months the AI users raised their average homework scores by 18 percent and cut assignment time from 64 minutes to 45.
Those same students then scored 20 percent below classmates who never used AI when they sat their exams.
The penalty fell almost entirely on pupils who rushed their homework, while students who kept spending the same amount of time on assignments paid little price.
A separate study by Zara Contractor and German Reyes of Middlebury College found undergraduates who learned an unfamiliar topic with a chatbot tested better, and held that advantage a week later.
The evidence points to a single lesson: AI can raise learning productivity, but only when students think a problem through before reaching for the answer.
Economists David Stromberg of Stockholm University with Victor Lei and Wu Yanhui of the University of Hong Kong tracked nearly 27,000 Chinese pupils aged 12 to 18, roughly 80 percent of whom used chatbots such as Doubao and DeepSeek.
After six months the AI users raised their average homework scores by 18 percent and cut assignment time from 64 minutes to 45.
Those same students then scored 20 percent below classmates who never used AI when they sat their exams.
The penalty fell almost entirely on pupils who rushed their homework, while students who kept spending the same amount of time on assignments paid little price.
A separate study by Zara Contractor and German Reyes of Middlebury College found undergraduates who learned an unfamiliar topic with a chatbot tested better, and held that advantage a week later.
The evidence points to a single lesson: AI can raise learning productivity, but only when students think a problem through before reaching for the answer.
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Read the original reporting at The Economist.
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