The Generative AI Learning Penalty

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Prof. David Strömberg, Stockholm University

In this talk Generative AI can help people complete tasks faster and better. But does it also help them learn? In education, this distinction is crucial: the purpose of school assignments is not simply to produce correct answers, but to develop knowledge and skills. Using 30 months of data on 26,000 students in Chinese secondary schools, we compare students as they begin using AI with students who have not yet adopted it. The contrast is striking: AI users complete homework much faster and earn much higher scores, yet their performance on closed-book exams falls by about 20% within six months. Learning losses also appear on high-stakes entrance exams, growing over time.

The losses are concentrated among students who complete homework unusually quickly while earning high scores, a pattern consistent with outsourcing assignments to AI. Students who keep spending a normal amount of time on homework experience much smaller losses. These findings suggest the problem is not that AI is inherently harmful, but that answer-giving tools can make it easy to bypass the effort that builds knowledge.

Check the working paper on SSRN

About the speaker David Strömberg is Professor of Economics at Stockholm University and a Research Affiliate at the Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR). He received his Ph.D. in Economics from Princeton University in 1999. His research focuses on political economy, particularly the influence of traditional and social media on political behavior, public policy, and accountability. His work includes studies of media bias, electoral competition, and the political effects of social media in China. He has published in leading economics journals, including the American Economic Review, Quarterly Journal of Economics, and Journal of Political Economy. His research has been supported by prestigious grants from the European Research Council (ERC).