Ten minutes with a chatbot made people quit hard problems sooner.
Researchers from four universities presented a peer-reviewed study at a language-model conference in San Francisco this week. In the first of three trials, people who lost their GPT-5 helper solved 57% of problems, against 73% for others. The trials only tested brief use, so nobody knows yet whether the effect lasts.
Why it mattersIf you or your students ask a chatbot for answers, the cost may show up when it is gone. In the study, people who asked for hints did better afterwards than those who asked for answers.
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