New research gives us a grim portrait of how rampant AI usage is affecting young students’ academic performance and learning.
In a study that tracked nearly 27,000 students in China between the ages of 12 and 18 (grades 7-12), around 80 percent reported using AI models like DeepSeek and ByteDance’s Doubao. The remaining 20 percent, who abstained from using AI, formed the control group.
What the researchers from Stockholm University and the University of Hong Kong found, as reported by The Economist, point to an alarming trend. After six months, the homework scores of students who used AI rose by 18 percent across all subjects, while the time it took them to complete each assignment fell from 64 minutes to 45 minutes on average — a 30 percent reduction.
But were they really learning, or were they using AI as a crutch to breeze through the assignments? This is where the findings get ominous: the AI-using students earned scores on monthly exams that were 20 percent lower than their classmates who didn’t use the tech.
