AI advice made people 3x less accurate but 2x confident, researchers found
21 hours ago
- AI advice significantly reduced participants' willingness to admit ignorance, dropping from 44% to 3%.
- Accuracy fell from 27% to 9% when AI was used, while confidence increased from 30% to 76%.
- Monetary incentives slightly improved outcomes but not to baseline levels; ignorance admission rose to 8% and accuracy to 16%.
- The study used questions where AI often fails, ensuring that reliance on AI was not due to its reliability.
- Researchers highlight 'cognitive surrender,' where people accept incorrect AI answers 80% of the time with higher confidence.
- The availability of AI suppresses the cognitive habit of recognizing one's own knowledge limits, a critical skill, especially for children.