The Generative AI Learning Penalty: Evidence from Chinese Secondary Education
Using 30 months of panel data on 26,811 Chinese students in grades 7-12, we study how generative AI affects homework productivity and learning. The data combine monthly closed-book exams, high-school and college entrance exams, and homework scores and completion time across nine subjects. We exploit staggered AI adoption in a difference-in-differences design. AI adoption raises homework scores by 18% and reduces completion time by 30%, but lowers monthly exam scores by 20% within six months. High-stakes entrance-exam scores fall by 18 and 24%, with the full penalty emerging only after about two years. The losses are largest in social science subjects, followed by STEM and languages, and are especially large for junior students, high-achieving students, and boys. The learning losses are concentrated among roughly 80% of AI users whose behavior is consistent with homework outsourcing, as indicated by exceptionally short homework completion time coupled with high homework scores. AI users who maintain similar homework completion time as non-AI users experience small learning losses.
Edit: moving my comment up here
Just in case as it’s formatted a bit weirdly
X-Axis: Homework scores
Y-Axis: Exam scores
This is actually a very good chart to explain outcomes. It shows that there’s a positive linear relationship between homework and exam scores for students that don’t use ai, and a terrible relationship for students that do use ai
I was taught to always label your axes.
They are labelled. It’s just the Y label is next to the title.
Which is the Y label?
“China* average exam score”
Oh god.
Y label is bold
has the prefix “China*,”
has additional row of text between the label and the diagram.
X label is regular
doesn’t have the prefix “China*,”
but has the suffix “, average without Al=100”
Complete disaster of a diagram.
Was it made by AI, perchance?
In the paper, Figure A11. Homework and Exam Score is well labeled and presented.
You should blame The Economist
LOL
@[email protected] , but why do you think the diagram was made by The Economist though?