# AI Assistance Reduces Persistence and Hurts Independent Performance

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.04721 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2604.04721/

## Key facts

- Cited by 9 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 26 of its 88 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 6 Apr 2026.

## Builds on (most cited first, 26 of 26)

- [Does Writing with Language Models Reduce Content Diversity?](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2309.05196/) (2023)
- [Generative artificial intelligence enhances creativity but reduces the diversity of novel content](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.00506/) (2023)
- [Co-Writing with Opinionated Language Models Affects Users' Views](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2302.00560/) (2023)
- [ELEPHANT: Measuring and understanding social sycophancy in LLMs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.13995/) (2025)
- [Your Brain on ChatGPT: Accumulation of Cognitive Debt when Using an AI Assistant for Essay Writing Task](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.08872/) (2025)
- [Is Power-Seeking AI an Existential Risk?](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2206.13353/) (2022)
- [Building Machines that Learn and Think with People](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2408.03943/) (2024)
- [Beyond Preferences in AI Alignment](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2408.16984/) (2024)
- [On Targeted Manipulation and Deception when Optimizing LLMs for User Feedback](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2411.02306/) (2024)
- [Why human-AI relationships need socioaffective alignment](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.02528/) (2025)
- [Gradual Disempowerment: Systemic Existential Risks from Incremental AI Development](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2501.16946/) (2025)
- [Fostering Appropriate Reliance on Large Language Models: The Role of Explanations, Sources, and Inconsistencies](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.08554/) (2025)
- [How AI Impacts Skill Formation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2601.20245/) (2026)
- [How RLHF Amplifies Sycophancy](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2602.01002/) (2026)
- [How to talk so AI will learn: Instructions, descriptions, and autonomy](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2206.07870/) (2022)
- [Two Types of AI Existential Risk: Decisive and Accumulative](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2401.07836/) (2024)
- [Neural steering vectors reveal dose and exposure-dependent impacts of human-AI relationships](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2512.01991/) (2025)
- [Who's in Charge? Disempowerment Patterns in Real-World LLM Usage](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2601.19062/) (2026)
- [Current and Near-Term AI as a Potential Existential Risk Factor](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2209.10604/) (2022)
- [Towards Optimizing Human-Centric Objectives in AI-Assisted Decision-Making With Offline Reinforcement Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.05911/) (2024)
- [Accommodation and Epistemic Vigilance: A Pragmatic Account of Why LLMs Fail to Challenge Harmful Beliefs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2601.04435/) (2026)
- [Comparing human and LLM politeness strategies in free production](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.09391/) (2025)
- [Using LLMs to Advance the Cognitive Science of Collectives](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.00052/) (2025)
- [When not to help: planning for lasting human-AI collaboration](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.01837/) (2025)
- [Reward Models Inherit Value Biases from Pretraining](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2601.20838/) (2026)
- [Belief Offloading in Human-AI Interaction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2602.08754/) (2026)

## Built on by (most cited first, 9 of 9)

- [(Im)Paired Programming: Coding Agents Improve Productivity but Harm Understanding](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2607.26375/) (2026)
- [Faster Completion, Less Learning: Generative AI Reduced Study Time on Math Problems and the Knowledge They Build](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.21629/) (2026)
- [Reframing AI Loss of Control: What Control Is, How to Have It, How to Lose It](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.12442/) (2026)
- [AI Assistants Overassist](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2607.21306/) (2026)
- [Epistemic Transfer in AI-Assisted Verification: A Framework and Evaluation Protocol](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.08882/) (2026)
- [How AI Assistance Affects Human Skill Development: A Study of Learning with Logic Puzzles](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.23543/) (2026)
- [Generative AI Expands the Intellectual Reach of Course Based Undergraduate Research Experiences (CUREs)](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.27638/) (2026)
- [Designing Against Deskilling: Metacognitive Feedback Reduces Cognitive Offloading to LLM Assistants](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.20143/) (2026)
- [When the AI Leaves the Tailorshop: Measuring What an LLM Advisor Leaves Behind in Complex Problem Solving](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2610.00163/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

People often optimize for long-term goals in collaboration: A mentor or companion doesn't just answer questions, but also scaffolds learning, tracks progress, and prioritizes the other person's growth over immediate results. In contrast, current AI systems are fundamentally short-sighted collaborators -- optimized for providing instant and complete responses, without ever saying no (unless for safety reasons). What are the consequences of this dynamic? Here, through a series of randomized controlled trials on human-AI interactions (N=1,222), we provide causal evidence for two key consequences of AI assistance: reduced persistence and impairment of unassisted performance. Across a variety of tasks, including mathematical reasoning and reading comprehension, we find that although AI assistance improves performance in the short-term, people perform significantly worse without AI and are more likely to give up. These findings are particularly concerning because persistence is foundational to skill acquisition and is one of the strongest predictors of long-term learning. We posit that persistence is reduced because AI conditions people to expect immediate answers, thereby denying them the experience of working through challenges on their own. These results add to the growing literature on cognitive offloading and AI-induced deskilling, and suggest the need for AI model development to prioritize scaffolding long-term competence alongside immediate task completion.