By Shishir Shakya
Publication Date: 2026-03-05 13:46:00
The use of AI to help students cheat on homework or tests is causing a lot of debate. But some scientists argue that the greater risk of students using AI is that they simply don’t learn.
About 90% of the 1,100 U.S. students surveyed at two- and four-year colleges in 2025 said they use generative AI for everything from developing assignments to clarifying complex concepts.
But if students use AI as a tutor or learning partner rather than as an immediate answer generator, does this make learning easier or harder for them?
We are economists who tried to answer this question by developing an AI tool that leverages ChatGPT’s custom GPT feature while disabling the chatbot’s web access.
We called the tool “Macro Buddy” and trained it to guide some students in one of our undergraduate macroeconomics courses at the University of Wisconsin, La Crosse through their reasoning rather than giving them direct answers.
In our study conducted in spring 2025, we found that students who used macro…
