The AI Reading Paradox
Will AI be the death knell of reading? To be fair reading numbers have been declining globally for decades.AI poses a fresh new challenge of making content accessible that readers may no longer engage
The habit of reading has been declining over decades. Reading struggles to compete with the videos and feeds! Will Generative AI be the death knell of reading? This is what we explore in this edition.
No doubt, Artificial intelligence is transforming how we read. But the impact isn’t straightforward. The same technology that liberates one reader is imprisoning another. I am sharing two real lived experiences with Generative AI and reading. The difference isn’t in the tool—it’s in how we use it.
The Liberator: AI as Access
A friend of mine, Maria (name changed), a UCL graduate student in the UK, faced an uphill task. reading a single academic paper took her four hours. Not because she wasn’t intelligent, but because English wasn’t her first language. Academic writing, jargon, and complex sentences made it so much harder.
She started using AI and everything changed. The tool didn’t read for her—it helped her understand complex passages. AI explained terminology, and adjusted text complexity when she hit walls. Within months, her comprehension soared.
Research backs this up. A 2025 study in Smart Learning Environments found that AI intervention led to “significant improvements in reading comprehension and self-regulated learning behaviors”. With “increased attentiveness, participation, and motivation” among second-language learners.
For students like Maria, AI democratizes access—it levels a playing field that was never fair to begin with.
The Trap: When Convenience Becomes A Handicap
But there’s another story. My good friend’s son Kobe (name changed again) discovered a shortcut. Copy paste assigned readings into Chat GPT, get instant summaries. It helped him score well on quizzes and objective type questions. If a written assignment had to be submitted, he asked AI to write like an 8th grade student and submitted it. The system rewarded him—until it didn’t.
For the half yearly exams, the teacher assigned an original analysis in the classroom. Kobe struggled and couldn’t do it. He had never actually engaged with the ideas, never wrestled with arguments, never experienced that breakthrough moment of genuine understanding. He’d outsourced the struggle. And the struggle was where learning happened.
The data is stark. Research from Duke’s Innovation Co-Lab (2023) found that complete reliance on AI for reading tasks led to a 25.1% reduction in accuracy. Students who let AI do their thinking performed worse than those who engaged with study material. The convenience comes at a cost.
The Real Danger: Both Extremes
The more we looked at the various research on AI and reading.
One thing becomes clear - (both) refusing to use AI and over-relying on it can harm us.
Students who avoid AI tools entirely may struggle unnecessarily with inaccessible/tough material. Wasting brain power on language barriers rather than ideas.
But those who outsource all mental effort to AI never develop deep reading skills. Deep reading is what transforms information into understanding.
Striking the Balance: Three Practical Principles
Here are three principles for you to consider while reading varied content. These principles lend themselves to reading for work, leisure, knowledge or anything at all…
1. Engage First (The Diagnostic Principle)
Always attempt the reading yourself before turning to AI. Five to ten minutes of genuine effort will tell you whether you’re facing a language barrier or a conceptual challenge worth preserving.
2. The 50% Rule (The Effort Principle)
If AI could handle 100% of a reading task, intentionally do at least ``50% yourself (thumb rule/indicative). Use AI to check your understanding, not replace it—summarize first, then compare.
3. Remove Barriers, Not Thinking (The Purpose Principle)
Let AI handle surface-level obstacles like vocabulary, syntax, or translation. But keep the conceptual wrestling for yourself—that’s where understanding actually happens.
AI isn’t destroying reading—but it is revealing what reading is really for. It’s not about moving your eyes across words. It’s about the irreplaceable human act of thinking deeply about ideas.
Additional Research Links:
The Impact of AI on Students’ Reading, Critical Thinking, and Problem-Solving Skills.. Link
Reinforcing L2 reading comprehension through artificial intelligence intervention: refining engagement to foster self-regulated learning.. Link