Daily AI use tied to 28-point PISA science drop, OECD says

The OECD’s flagship PISA report, released Tuesday, found 15-year-olds who use AI daily for schoolwork score 28 points lower in science than peers who never or almost never do — roughly a year and a half of teaching. The findings land as responses diverge: New York City has banned AI for younger pupils, US congressman Josh Gottheimer wants federal AI labs, and Vietnam is building a free national AI tutor. The OECD’s education director, Andreas Schleicher, says AI should be a 'scaffold, not a crutch'.

Bottom line — The 28-point PISA gap gives governments measurable evidence on classroom AI — and no single answer.

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• Only 14% of students globally say they never or almost never use AI for schoolwork; in Japan the share is nearly 40%, in Vietnam 4%, the OECD report says.
• Students who use AI once or twice a week tend to outperform lighter and daily users, and weekly users who say they use it 'to help me learn' beat every group, including never-users, according to the OECD.
• Daily AI users score 13 points higher on PISA science if their lessons regularly ask them to assess AI-generated information, Bloomberg found.
• A June study of 27,000 Chinese students found AI cut homework time and raised scores but led to significantly worse exam results, Bloomberg reports.
• New York City, the largest US school district, banned AI for elementary and middle-school students last week, while Representative Josh Gottheimer proposed federal money for K-12 AI labs and called bans a 'false choice', per the New Jersey Herald.
• A Gallup/Walton Family Foundation survey cited in a Times-Republican column found six in 10 US teachers regularly use AI, with frequent users saving nearly six hours a week on planning and paperwork.
• A 2025 Harvard randomized trial in an undergraduate physics course, cited in The Globe and Mail, found students using an AI tutor learned more in less time than in an instructor-led class.
• The University of Asia and the Pacific runs gadget-free classrooms by default and requires students to disclose material AI assistance in submitted work, the university said.
• Vietnam is developing a free national AI platform with a virtual tutor; its education minister says it could eventually make the high-school graduation exam unnecessary, Vietnam News reports.
• A QS I-GAUGE survey of Indian faculty at 146 institutions found 80% say their universities are AI-ready while 78% worry AI will reduce independent thinking, QS I-GAUGE said.

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