The same AI that teaches you can think for you; the difference is where you stand

A study of 145 secondary students found that the same AI interaction can either support sense-making or enable cognitive offloading. What decides is not the model or the prompt but how the learner positions the tool. Ask it to explain a step and you extend your thinking; ask it for the answer and you replace it.

• It dissolves the tired binary of "tutor or cheating machine": the tool is neither, the stance is everything.
• It gives "AI literacy" a real definition: noticing, mid-task, whether a move is building your understanding or quietly emptying it.

• One study, one age group, self-described reasoning; the principle travels further than the evidence does.
• Substitution is the comfortable default: faster, feels like output, and nothing warns you the thinking has left.

Source: Chan (2026), μελέτη με 145 μαθητές δευτεροβάθμιας που συλλογίζονται με ΤΝ (arXiv)