Artificial intelligence has established a permanent foothold in our daily lives. Yet, the rapid adoption of this powerful tool carries a growing risk of over-reliance that could cause serious consequences for children’s and adults’ learning skills.

While the potential erosion of human cognitive ability raises widespread concern, the chief executive of NVIDIA doesn’t appear worried about the situation. It makes sense considering that he is the leader of a primary hardware supplier powering the AI boom.

Research Reveals that Children Using AI Cannot Do Basic Math

As CEO of NVIDIA, Jensen Huang remains one of artificial intelligence’s most vocal champions. This is because his company is a dominant manufacturer of high-performance hardware for data centers and personal computers, and it relies on the growth of AI applications to sustain its commercial growth.

In a recent interview with The New York Times, Huang addressed findings from a study in China that demonstrated that AI tools helped students complete homework significantly faster, while simultaneously uncovering a troubling side effect.

According to the analysis, students who relied on AI struggled to consolidate the skills that they had been taught. Consequently, test scores fell by as much as 24%, a performance decline that materialized after just two years of consistent AI usage.

Reflecting on the study’s conclusions, Huang conceded that basic mathematical fluency is rapidly diminishing among younger generations.

“I completely agree. Try to get a kid to do long division right now. The multiplication table is starting to be forgotten. Doing square roots, my goodness. Basic math is being forgotten. Does it matter? I don’t think it does. I don’t think it does,” Huang said.

Rather than expressing alarm over a generation growing up without being able to multiply, divide, or other basic math functions, Huang noted that he frequently forgets basic personal details such as his own phone number or zip code.

“I actually don’t know my address. It’s completely true… [my wife] Lori will tell you. One day I had to pump gas—it was a few years ago. They needed my ZIP code, and I panicked. I didn’t know my ZIP code. I don’t know my telephone number. I forget these things. I can live with it,” he said.

Jensen Huang NVIDIA

AI Could Cause a Decline in Intellectual Capacity

During the conversation, the interviewer noted his own reliance on navigation apps like Google Maps, while emphasizing that certain foundational capabilities such as reading remain essential for cultivating focus and other intellectual skills.

Huang agreed with the premise, acknowledging that heavy reliance on AI could lead to a loss of “intellectual dexterity.” However, he downplayed the risk, saying that the technology would allow people to become “systems thinkers.”

In Huang’s view, a systems thinker is someone capable of thinking about complex systems and how they interact between each other.

“When I graduated, the first chip I worked on had 200 transistors, and I knew all of them by name,” Huang recalled. “Today, no engineer does that. Most work at a much higher-level, focusing on functionality and assembling complex components to achieve results.”

This rapid expansion of AI infrastructure continues to ripple across the broader technology landscape. Surging demand for AI components has driven up hardware prices for consumer PCs and gaming consoles over recent months and this hardware crisis is expected to persist for the foreseeable future.

Do you think AI affects intelligence? Do you use these tools in your daily life? Share your thoughts in the comments below.