The Results of Middle and High School Students Using AI Are Extremely Ominous

A recent study paints a concerning picture of how middle and high school students' academic performance is being affected by the widespread use of AI tools. In the study, which monitored nearly 27,000 students aged 12 to 18 (grades 7-12) in China, around 80 percent admitted to using AI models such as DeepSeek and ByteDance's Doubao.

The remaining 20 percent, who refrained from using AI, served as the control group. According to the findings, published by The Economist, students who employed AI saw an 18 percent increase in their homework grades across all subjects within six months, while their average completion time per assignment dropped by 30 percent, from 64 minutes to 45 minutes.

However, the study raises troubling questions about whether these students were truly learning or merely using AI as a shortcut to finish assignments. Notably, the AI-using students scored 20 percent lower on monthly exams compared to their non-AI using peers. This contradicts the conventional belief that good homework grades typically correlate with exam success.

This trend was observed by a Brown University professor who noticed his students scoring suspiciously high on a take-home midterm, with the average grade in the high 90s and half of the class earning perfect scores. After suspecting AI involvement, the professor altered the final exam to be completed in-person, and the results confirmed his hunch; the average score on the final exam plummeted to just 48 percent, down from a previous average of over 65 percent.

Further research into AI's cognitive impact on learning shows that students who used AI to compose essays demonstrated diminished brain activity compared to those who did not. These students struggled to attribute proper citations to their essays and maintained lower brain activity when writing papers without AI assistance. Similar studies have demonstrated that AI hampers critical thinking skills and is linked to memory loss.

While this study focuses on academic trends rather than cognitive ones, it aligns with the earlier findings. In terms of subject matter, the study reveals that social science courses experienced the most significant learning losses, followed by STEM and language courses. The use of AI within a similar timeframe to non-AI users also resulted in smaller learning losses, though the decline was still evident.

The study also contributes to the growing concern over grade inflation, which has surged in recent years due to AI cheating. Research has found that the percentage of A grades in vulnerable courses (typically humanities and engineering) rose by 30 percent since the launch of ChatGPT.