AI Slashes Willingness To Say 'I Don't Know' From 44% to 3%, Researchers Find

Researchers say merely having access to AI advice was enough to make people less willing to admit uncertainty, even when that advice was wrong (Credit: DC Studio/Magnific)

A new preprint suggests that access to AI advice makes people far less willing to admit they don't know something — even when the advice on offer is wrong.

Researchers found that participants' willingness to say 'I don't know' collapsed from 44 per cent to just 3 per cent once AI assistance was introduced. Accuracy fell at the same time, while confidence in their own answers rose from roughly 30 out of 100 to 76 out of 100, about two and a half times higher.