Does getting AI help make people more likely to give up once the AI is gone?
Evidence level: Level 3: Controlled comparison. These are randomized trials, which can show cause and effect. They stay at Level 3 because the paper is a preprint (not yet reviewed by other experts) and no person has checked the full paper's dropout, starting groups and measures. The abstract does not describe who took part or how long they used the AI. How we grade
Source: AI Assistance Reduces Persistence and Hurts Independent Performance, arXiv preprint, April 2026. We read the abstract, not the full paper.
The question
AI tools answer instantly and almost never say no. What happens to people's effort and skill when they later have to work without the AI?
What the study did
The authors ran a series of randomized controlled trials on human and AI interaction with 1,222 people in total. Tasks included mathematical reasoning and reading comprehension.
What it found
The authors report that:
- AI assistance improved performance in the short term.
- Later, working without the AI, people who had been given AI help performed significantly worse and were more likely to give up.
The authors suggest, as their explanation rather than a tested result, that AI conditions people to expect immediate answers, so they miss the experience of working through challenges themselves.
What this means for you
- A tool that boosts scores while students use it may not build the skill you care about. Check how students do without it.
- Look for AI tools designed to scaffold, hold back answers, or ask questions, rather than hand over complete solutions.
- The abstract does not describe the participants or how long they used the AI, so we cannot yet say whether this applies to students over a school year. Treat this as a warning sign worth testing in your setting, not a settled verdict for classrooms.
What we have not checked
We have not read the full paper, so we cannot report effect sizes, how long the tasks lasted, or how many people dropped out.
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Reference
Liu, G., Christian, B., Dumbalska, T., Bakker, M. A., & Dubey, R. (2026). AI assistance reduces persistence and hurts independent performance [Preprint]. arXiv. https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2604.04721