How AI Assistance Affects Human Skill Development: A Study of Learning with Logic Puzzles

Abstract:While AI assistance can improve human task performance in the short term, it may also undermine the development of skills in the longer term. We examine this tension in a controlled logic-puzzle experiment involving on-demand AI assistance, where participants complete tasks before, during, and after AI is available. By experimentally varying AI request costs, we find that lower-cost assistance induces more frequent AI use. We also find that participants who request AI assistance during the AI-access phase perform worse at the task after assistance is removed, and their subsequent unassisted performance is overestimated when predicted from earlier AI-assisted performance. We use a Bayesian latent ability model to separate initial ability, post-AI ability, and participant-specific skill change, while estimating how independent reasoning during the AI-access phase relates to skill development. The results show that greater independent problem-solving effort is associated with larger gains in latent ability, consistent with the interpretation that skill development is weaker when AI assistance substitutes for independent reasoning.

Artificial Intelligence (cs.AI)

arXiv:2608.23543 [cs.AI]

(or arXiv:2608.23543v1 [cs.AI] for this version)

https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2608.23543 Focus to learn more arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite (pending registration)

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