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Students perform better academically with less AI, study finds

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Cite

Angelo, J. (2026, September 15). Students perform better academically with less AI, study finds. Semafor. https://www.semafor.com/article/09/09/2026/students-perform-better-academically-with-less-ai-study-finds

Dated when The Aporia collected the article, usually within hours of publication. Check the original for its exact date and byline.

Semafor · collected 2026-09-15 · by Jake Angelo

Quick Summary

A recent OECD report indicates that students who avoid using artificial intelligence perform better academically compared to those who rely on it. The study surveyed over 760,000 students across 91 countries and concluded that passive consumption of information without cognitive engagement is ineffective for learning. In response, many schools are implementing restrictions; for example, New York City and Los Angeles public schools have banned AI use this school year, affecting more than one million students combined.
Written by AI on 2026-09-15, from this article's own text only (the story summary below draws on all the coverage).

AI analysis

Story summary

According to a recent OECD report, students who avoid using artificial intelligence (AI) perform better academically than those who rely on it. The study surveyed over 760,000 students across 91 countries and found that consuming information without cognitive effort is less effective for learning. In response, twenty-two states and Washington DC have mandated bell-to-bell phone bans in schools, restricting mobile device use throughout the school day. For the first time this year, New York City and Los Angeles are implementing additional restrictions on AI use in public schools, affecting more than 1 million students combined. Additionally, New York has prohibited teachers from using AI to grade assignments. These measures follow a decade-long push to integrate technology into classrooms, which some educators now believe may have been detrimental to learning outcomes.

Written for “AI Impact on Student Performance” on 2026-11-01, grounded in this article and the 0 other(s) covering the same event.

Story

📰 AI Impact on Student Performance
Education · 1 article(s) covering the same event.

Compared with similar articles

Nothing to compare against. No article is close enough to this one for the pipeline to have linked or judged the pair.
How this article was measured signals, leaning charts, publisher record, byline, topics and claims

Signals How these are calculated →

Claims extracted
10
sentences that state something as happening or true
Uncertain
20%
2 of 10 hedged ("reportedly", "may", "according to")
Leaning
withheld
no quote in the article backed the model's score
Publisher signals
60/100
Semafor's corrections and hedging, across everything collected from it. Not a measure of accuracy.
Outlets on this story
1
Education
Same framing elsewhere
1
articles that frame the event the way this one does
Analyzed 2026-09-15 · how these are computed

How this is being covered How these are calculated →

Article leaning vs. publisher reliability
Source leaning vs. consistency

Publisher

Semafor · 1393 article(s) · 1 correction(s) detected
Running correction rate · 1 correction(s)
2026-10-16
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Who wrote this

Jake Angelo
12 article(s) here · 1 carrying a prediction
🔮 The News Casino operators and sports betting companies have spent record amounts on campaign donations and on lobbying in Washington thus far this year, hoping it will help win back millions of bettors and gambling dollars that prediction markets have lured away.
2026-10-23 · assertive framing · Betting operators and prediction markets spent record amounts on campaign donations and lobbying
🔮 While AI fluency isn’t yet a prerequisite for movie making, some of the residency’s creatives are betting it soon will be.
2026-09-25 · assertive framing · Hollywood scouts film schools for AI-native talent
🔮 For the 70 million daily customers McDonald’s has, even a 90% accuracy rate would leave 7 million facing a potential error, making for a supersized customer service test.
2026-09-25 · assertive framing · McDonald's unveils AI-enabled drive-thru system
🔮 “Winter is coming,” Kristalina Georgieva, managing director of the International Monetary Fund said at Semafor’s Next 3 Billion event in New York, warning that prices will keep climbing.
2026-09-22 · assertive framing · 'Winter is coming': IMF head issues 'warning' over inflation and central bank tightening
🔮 An S&P Global assessment of data center companies globally found that just 15 of the 50 firms surveyed received a passing grade signaling that they would be low-carbon and climate-resilient by 2030.
2026-09-22 · assertive framing · ‘Hold us accountable’ on data centers, Amazon sustainability chief says
🔮 But Pika says their product stands out in part because it will be available at half the price of competitors’, including Seedance, a text-to-video generation model available across other AI video platforms.
2026-09-17 · assertive framing · Video AI company Pika offers new tool to speed up AI video creation
🔮 Edtech may have already failed to support learning, though.
2026-09-15 · assertive framing · Students perform better academically with less AI, study finds
🔮 These licensing agreements are not only a way to shift AI music companies from the targets of lawsuits (UMG, Sony and Warner sued Suno in 2024, but Warner dropped out late last year) to paying customers for music, but also a bet that allowing fans to play with the tech may demystify it, and could make some more people open to AI-assisted music down the line.
2026-09-12 · assertive framing · UMG and voice AI giant ElevenLabs launch AI-powered music platform
🔮 “They wanted to see if AI could help fill that gap at a cheaper price,” he said.
2026-09-04 · assertive framing · Filmmakers tout AI’s use in Hollywood at the other film festival in Venice
🔮 In a blog post Thursday, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said Hugging Face “will remain an open platform for the entire AI ecosystem.
2026-09-03 · assertive framing · Nvidia to buy Hugging Face for nearly $13 billion
Also by Jake Angelo
Betting operators and prediction markets spent record amounts on campaign donations and lobbying
2026-10-23 · Semafor
Hollywood scouts film schools for AI-native talent
2026-09-25 · Semafor
McDonald's unveils AI-enabled drive-thru system
2026-09-25 · Semafor
'Winter is coming': IMF head issues 'warning' over inflation and central bank tightening
2026-09-22 · Semafor
Nothing else under this byline is closely related to this article, so these are simply their most recent.
All 12 articles by Jake Angelo →

Topics

Los Angeles’ New York New York City OECD Washington DC

Subjects

Los Angeles’ GPE · 1× New York GPE · 1× New York City GPE · 1× OECD ORG · 1× Washington DC GPE · 1×

Narrative

Twenty-two states and Washington DC have mandated bell-to-bell phone bans, and for the first time this school year, New York City’s and Los Angeles’ public schools are implementing restrictions on AI use, impacting more than 1 million students combined (New York also prohibited teachers from using AI to grade assignments).
framing: assertive · carried by 1 article(s) · first seen 2026-09-15
🔮 Edtech may have already failed to support learning, though.
2026-09-15 · Semafor
Students perform better academically with less AI, study finds · assertive framing

Claims (10 extracted, 2 hedged)

Students won’t learn without exercising their brains, “in the same way that we do not become fit by watching sports but by doing sports,” wrote an OECD researcher in a recent report. asserted
researcher → learn → report
Students who refrain from using AI perform better academically than those who use it, according to the report, which surveyed more than 760,000 students across 91 countries. uncertain
which → refrain → countries
Researchers found that consuming information that doesn’t require any “cognitive struggle” proved an ineffective educational method. asserted
that → find → method
After a decade-long push to integrate technology into classrooms, educators are now reversing course. asserted
educators → integrate → course
Twenty-two states and Washington DC have mandated bell-to-bell phone bans, and for the first time this school year, New York City’s and Los Angeles’ public schools are implementing restrictions on AI use, impacting more than 1 million students combined (New York also prohibited teachers from using AI to grade assignments). asserted
York → mandate → assignments
Edtech may have already failed to support learning, though. uncertain
Edtech → fail → learning
Reading, science, and mathematics scores have fallen steadily over the past 15 years before widespread AI adoption. asserted
scores → fall → adoption
Education is best done offline, like it was before the advent of the personal computer. asserted
it → do → computer
And technology has gotten so user-friendly, it isn’t necessary to instruct students on how to work with it. asserted
it → get → it
Plus, most young people are better versed in AI and smartphones than their parents and teachers. asserted
people → verse → parents
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