AI use hurts student scores, except with critical assessment training
students who use ai tend to score worse, but training to assess ai results boosts test scores. this affects education globally.
the oecd's pisa study, based on 2025 data from 760,000 students in 91 countries, finds that students who use ai tend to perform worse in science than those who don't. however, students who use ai for preliminary research or with training to assess its results see less of a performance drop or even outperform non-users. the study also notes that ai use is more common among students from advantaged backgrounds and varies widely internationally. additionally, daily ai users show higher curiosity levels, but this doesn't always translate to better grades.