Overview
- A new multi-university study posted on arXiv finds that about 10 minutes of chatbot assistance can lower persistence and accuracy once the assistance is removed.
- The team ran three controlled online experiments with several hundred paid participants who worked on simple math and reading comprehension tasks.
- Participants who let the AI produce full solutions performed worse afterward and were more likely to quit when the chatbot access ended.
- Participants who used the AI only for hints or clarifications did not show a significant decline in follow-up performance.
- The authors, including MIT’s Michiel Bakker, argue for AI designs that scaffold and coach users because persistence strongly predicts how people learn new skills over time.