What Happens When People Lose Access to AI Assistance? A Study Found a Worrying Pattern

# After People Lost Access to AI Help, a Surprising Pattern Emerged Source: [https://humanumi.com/after-people-lost-access-to-ai-help-a-surprising-pattern-emerged/](https://humanumi.com/after-people-lost-access-to-ai-help-a-surprising-pattern-emerged/)  **In three randomized experiments involving 1,222 participants, people who used an AI assistant initially performed better on problems but struggled more when they had to continue without it\.** Researchers from Carnegie Mellon University, the University of Oxford, UC Berkeley, MIT and UCLA examined what happened when participants lost access to an AI assistant after a short period of use\. The experiments, presented at the 2026 Conference on Language Modeling, involved fraction problems and reading comprehension tasks rather than everyday AI use\. Earlier research has also found that[generative AI can increase students’ motivation to learn](https://humanumi.com/ai-increases-student-learning-motivation-but-there-are-a-few-caveats/), although results varied considerably between studies\. In the first experiment, 354 participants worked through 15 fraction problems\. One group could use an AI assistant for the first 12 questions, while the other worked without AI throughout\. Once the assistant was removed, the AI group solved an average of 57% of the final problems, compared with 73% in the control group among participants retained for analysis\. They also skipped more questions: 20% versus 11%\. The second experiment involved 667 participants\. It included a preliminary skills test and more closely matched interfaces for the two groups\. A similar pattern emerged\. After AI access ended, the assisted group solved 71% of the final problems, compared with 77% among participants who had worked without AI\. The difference in skipped questions was not statistically significant in this experiment\. How participants used the assistant may also have mattered\. In a follow\-up analysis, those who reported asking AI for complete answers performed worse and skipped more problems than those who mainly asked for hints or clarification\. That comparison was not randomized, however, so it cannot show that asking for complete answers caused the poorer performance\. The third experiment involved 201 participants answering SAT\-style reading comprehension questions\. After the assistant was removed, the AI group answered 76% of the final questions correctly, compared with 89% in the control group\. They also skipped more questions\. The researchers suggest that immediate access to answers may change people’s expectations about how much effort a problem should require\. The experiments did not directly test whether this explained the results\. The study measured performance only immediately after a brief period of AI use\. It did not establish whether the effect lasts for hours or days, whether repeated AI use produces longer\-term changes, or whether an assistant designed to teach rather than provide answers would produce similar results\. RESEARCH REFERENCE **Reference:**“AI Assistance Reduces Persistence and Hurts Independent Performance” by Grace Liu, Brian Christian, Tsvetomira Dumbalska, Michiel A\. Bakker, Rachit Dubey, 3 October 2026,*Conference on Language Modeling \(COLM 2026\); arXiv*\. **DOI:**[10\.48550/arXiv\.2604\.04721](https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2604.04721) **Additional source:**[UC Berkeley](https://news.berkeley.edu/2026/10/09/using-ai-for-just-10-minutes-erodes-your-ability-to-persist-at-hard-things/) Want to see more from HUMANUMi in Google? ## Latest News - [](https://humanumi.com/parenting-at-age-3-was-linked-to-how-teens-brains-responded-to-rewards/)### [Parenting at Age 3 Was Linked to How Teens’ Brains Responded to Rewards](https://humanumi.com/parenting-at-age-3-was-linked-to-how-teens-brains-responded-to-rewards/) October 14, 2026 - [](https://humanumi.com/five-brain-activity-patterns-found-among-people-with-depression/)### [Five Brain Activity Patterns Found Among People With Depression](https://humanumi.com/five-brain-activity-patterns-found-among-people-with-depression/) October 13, 2026 - [](https://humanumi.com/women-found-it-harder-to-admit-mistakes-at-work-especially-around-more-men/)### [Women Found It Harder to Admit Mistakes at Work — Especially Around More Men](https://humanumi.com/women-found-it-harder-to-admit-mistakes-at-work-especially-around-more-men/) October 11, 2026 - [](https://humanumi.com/why-does-time-seem-to-speed-up-as-we-age/)### [Why Does Time Seem to Speed Up as We Age?](https://humanumi.com/why-does-time-seem-to-speed-up-as-we-age/) October 10, 2026 - [](https://humanumi.com/cardiovascular-fitness-was-linked-to-more-efficient-information-processing-in-older-adults-the-link-appeared-in-an-attention-task/)### [Cardiovascular Fitness Was Linked to More Efficient Information Processing in Older Adults — The Link Appeared in an Attention Task](https://humanumi.com/cardiovascular-fitness-was-linked-to-more-efficient-information-processing-in-older-adults-the-link-appeared-in-an-attention-task/) October 9, 2026 - [](https://humanumi.com/why-does-math-make-so-many-students-anxious-study-highlights-school-climate-and-the-teachers-role/)### [Why Does Math Make So Many Students Anxious? Study Highlights School Climate and the Teacher’s Role](https://humanumi.com/why-does-math-make-so-many-students-anxious-study-highlights-school-climate-and-the-teachers-role/) October 8, 2026 - [](https://humanumi.com/the-same-ai-was-paid-less-when-it-was-presented-as-female/)### [The Same AI Was Paid Less When It Was Presented as Female](https://humanumi.com/the-same-ai-was-paid-less-when-it-was-presented-as-female/) October 7, 2026 - [](https://humanumi.com/running-in-a-forest-took-people-farther-without-feeling-harder-and-improved-mood/)### [Running in a Forest Helped People Go Farther Without Feeling Harder — and Improved Mood](https://humanumi.com/running-in-a-forest-took-people-farther-without-feeling-harder-and-improved-mood/) October 6, 2026 - [](https://humanumi.com/ai-reacts-like-us-but-one-word-shows-we-still-see-it-as-less-conscious/)### [AI Reacts Like Us — But One Word Shows We Still See It as Less Conscious](https://humanumi.com/ai-reacts-like-us-but-one-word-shows-we-still-see-it-as-less-conscious/) October 6, 2026 - [](https://humanumi.com/applying-for-public-benefits-administrative-burden/)### [Getting Help Can Require the Very Capacity a Crisis Weakens](https://humanumi.com/applying-for-public-benefits-administrative-burden/) October 4, 2026 - [](https://humanumi.com/you-dont-finish-becoming-yourself-in-your-twenties-identity-development-continued-for-decades/)### [You Don’t Finish Becoming Yourself in Your Twenties — Identity Development Continued for Decades](https://humanumi.com/you-dont-finish-becoming-yourself-in-your-twenties-identity-development-continued-for-decades/) October 3, 2026 - [](https://humanumi.com/student-reputation-teacher-grading-bias/)### [A Student’s Reputation Affected Their Grade: A Familiar Teacher’s Assessment Widened Inequality](https://humanumi.com/student-reputation-teacher-grading-bias/) October 2, 2026 - [](https://humanumi.com/play-your-way-into-a-job-video-game-measure-real-skills/)### [Play Your Way Into a Job? Researchers Tested Whether a Video Game Can Measure Real Skills](https://humanumi.com/play-your-way-into-a-job-video-game-measure-real-skills/) October 1, 2026 [More Latest News](https://humanumi.com/latest-news-archive/?query-2-page=2)