3 Ways Generative AI Can Harm Learning (+How to Fix Them)

Generative AI can harm learning faster than a bad teacher with a grudge.

It's fast. It's brilliant. It makes your students feel like the smartest people in the room. But that's the issue.

It's seductive. And it's painfully easy for students to mistake AI's work for THEIR work.

While they're out there celebrating killer outputs and newfound efficiency, the artificial intelligence brain worm is working in the background. Burrowing its way through the cognitive skills they NEED to develop for life on the other side of a textbook.

And it's a problem.

AI adoption is hitting all-time highs, with 92% of learners using it in some capacity this year. But they're getting little to no guidance - with 40% of teachers feeling they're just STARTING their AI journey - and are going into hardcore cognitive debt.

A debt that will stick with them for decades to come.

But the brain buffet is NOT inevitable... if you know what to avoid.

Worried the AI brain worm is getting to your students? Here are 3 ways generative AI can harm learning - and EXACTLY how to turn each trap into a training ground.

#1: Students Offload Critical Thinking

'Life is about the journey, not the destination.'

Yes, it's cheesy. But it's also a core feature of learning.

Learning IS mental work. Wrestling with tough problems, failing, analyzing what went wrong, failing again, and then FINALLY breaking through. It's a tough, painful, frustrating process.

But it's important.

AI is the ultimate shortcut machine. Making the *ahem learning process absurdly simple:

1. Write prompt.
2. Receive output.
3. Think you did the work.

This is NOT the journey that matters.

When students use AI powered tools, roughly 70-80% report significantly reduced mental effort across all thinking categories - knowledge application, analysis, synthesis. And new studies show a brutal negative correlation between AI tool usage and critical thinking scores (r=−0.68).

Our very own Carla Dewing puts it this way:

"AI's output fluency creates a false sense of competence. You read a convincing summary and think, 'Oh yeah, that works.' But what you're REALLY doing is skipping the deeper cognitive reps."

Unearned confidence. Borrowed intelligence.

Your students think they're getting smarter while their brains get lazier.

The Critical Thinking Fix

AI should amplify thinking, not replace it.

The goal isn't to ban AI - it's to keep your students' brains in the driver's seat. When they use AI as a thinking partner instead of a thinking replacement, they get the efficiency boost WHILE keeping their cognitive muscles strong.

Your job is to build the partnership into every assignment.

Here's how in 3 steps:

1. Think First, Prompt Second – Before ANY AI interaction, students write down their goal, approach, and initial reasoning. Make this non-negotiable in ALL assignments.
2. Challenge Every Output – Train students to automatically ask 'What would I add?' and 'Where might this be wrong?' Introduce peer review where students critique AI.
3. Justify the Final Answer – Students must explain WHY they accepted or modified AI's suggestions. Grade the reasoning process, not just the final answer.

#2:Students Outsource Their Creative Ammunition

'Why memorize facts when AI can retrieve anything, anytime?'

It's the 'why learn math if you have a calculator' argument all... over... again.

Sounds kind of logical at first glance.

But it really, REALLY isn't.

Creativity is built on a foundation of information. But it's not just access to information. It's how your students' brains recombine what they already know to come up with something NEW.

When students tackle problems, their brains use subconscious incubation. Pulling from long-term memory to make unexpected connections.

If they skip building that memory base - because AI spoon-feeds them facts - they rob their brains of raw material.

Enter the idea puddle.

A recent meta-analysis of 28 studies found that human-AI collaboration significantly reduces creative diversity (−0.86). Killing the length and breadth of an AI-user's ideas

They're not bad ideas. There are just... fewer of them.

Over time, AI overreliance narrows your students' creative range. Instead of original thought, they recycle AI's average-by-design outputs.

Make no mistake: Creativity IS a skill. And it CAN atrophy.

The Creativity Fix

Foundation first, AI second.

Think cooking - you can't claim a great meal by ordering takeout and adding seasoning. Your students need to build their knowledge base, develop their connections, THEN use AI to push ideas further.

The goal: protect creativity WHILE leveraging AI.

Here's how in 3 steps:

1. Knowledge Building – Start every unit with research and knowledge gathering WITHOUT AI. Students stretch their curiosity and build their own mental database first.
2. AI Collaboration – Once students have a foundation, introduce AI to push boundaries. Require contrarian viewpoints and unexpected angles.
3. Personal Remix – Get students to work WITH AI to connect datapoints and uncover insights. The goal here is to find something new and unexpected. Grade based on originality, not just polish.

#3: Students Lose Human Connection

Human connection works at a biological level. When two people connect, oxytocin releases. Syncing brain activity in ways that lock in deep learning.

BUT AI CAN'T CONNECT.

In purely AI-led learning, the empathy loop never forms. Students become passive recipients instead of active participants in relationships that fuel persistence.

Here are the baseline facts: Teacher empathy shows a significant positive correlation with student engagement (correlation coefficient of 0.45). Student engagement strongly correlates with better mental health outcomes (0.50).

Ipso facto: empathy → engagement → better mental state → enhanced student performance.

When you remove the human from the loop, you lower engagement, diminish enjoyment, and decrease willingness to push through difficult material.

Your students need more than information. They need connection.

The smartest AI-assisted schools get this (looking at you, Alpha School!). They use AI for admin, personalization, and diagnostics so TEACHERS have the mental space to focus on the human side - motivating, challenging, guiding.

The Empathy Fix

Let AI handle the data. You handle the hearts.

Smart teachers aren't competing with AI - they're partnering with AI. When AI tackles routine tracking and grading, you get MORE time for the human interaction that drives real learning.

You NEED to manage the human-AI division.

Here's how in 3 steps:

1. AI Handles Data, You Handle Hearts – Structure an AI partner that tracks progress and identifies learning gaps. You focus on encouragement, goal-setting, and celebrating breakthroughs.
2. Create Connection Rituals – Start classes with personal check-ins. End with reflection discussions. Use AI prep time for real conversations about struggles and wins.
3. Teach Collaboration Skills – In an AI world, your students' ability to connect becomes their competitive advantage. Design group projects that use AI tools but require genuine collaboration.

Generative AI CAN Harm Learning… but It Doesn’t Have To

Here's what we know.

Generative AI can harm learning when it replaces critical thinking, creativity, and human connection. When your students use it as a shortcut machine instead of a thinking partner, they trade temporary efficiency for long-term cognitive decline.

But here's the core takeaway: It doesn't HAVE to harm learning.

All it takes is intentional use:

• Think before prompting
• Build your OWN knowledge base
• Keep empathy central
• Partner with AI, don't surrender to it

Your students don't need protection from AI. They need training to use it WITHOUT surrendering the skills that make them great.

Don't let them outsource their brains. Train them for a human-AI world.

Stop waiting for someone else to figure this out. Yes, generative AI can harm learning - but only if you let it. Get intentional, get strategic, and guide your students through the AI partnership they need.