February 3, 2026
Learning How to Learn (With AI)
Anthropic just published a randomized controlled trial studying how AI assistance affects skill development in software engineers. The headline finding: participants using AI scored 17% lower on a mastery quiz than those who coded by hand—nearly two letter grades.
The reactions will write themselves. Some will read this as vindication: “See? AI makes us dumber.” Others will dismiss it: “We’ll adapt.” Both miss what the study actually found.
The study’s most interesting finding isn’t that AI hurts learning. It’s that how you use AI determines whether you learn at all.
