Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said he doubts it matters that children forget basic math, after research on more than 26,000 students tied AI use to 20% lower exam scores.
Key Points:
- Huang made the remarks in a New York Times podcast interview published Sept. 23, arguing that people will pick up new skills as AI handles routine ones.
- The study he was asked about found homework scores rose 18% among AI users, while their monthly exam scores were 20% lower.
- Critics say basic math is still needed to check whether an AI answer is correct.
Jensen Huang Remarks
Huang, whose company supplies much of the hardware behind AI data centers, made the comments in a podcast interview with Ezra Klein of The New York Times, published Sept. 23. Klein had cited research on Chinese students in grades 7 through 12.
Huang agreed that basic skills are slipping. "The multiplication table is starting to be forgotten," he said, also naming long division and square roots. He then asked whether the loss matters and, when Klein turned the question back to him, said twice that he does not think it does.
Pressed on which abilities still count, Huang said people will discover new skills, though perhaps not the ones being lost. He admitted that he does not know his own home address, ZIP code or telephone number, and recalled panicking at a gas pump when asked for the ZIP code.
He said he can live with that.
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AI Study, Critics
The research followed the students over six months and came from academics at Stockholm University and the University of Hong Kong.
About 80% reported using AI models such as DeepSeek and ByteDance's Doubao. Homework scores for AI users rose 18% and average assignment time fell from 64 minutes to 45, but their monthly exam scores were 20% lower than those of classmates who avoided AI.
Huang conceded that people may lose some "finer intellectual dexterity" but argued they will become better systems thinkers as AI handles routine detail. Technology columnist Lance Ulanoff countered that multiplication tables remain a core skill, and he asked when society will lose the ability to double-check AI's work.
The exchange was one of several recent Huang comments on young people and AI. In a separate CNN interview reported Sept. 28, he urged students to stay in school and learn to use AI, calling efforts to scare children away from education a disservice to society. He also told Klein that China produces "smart kids in volume."
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