Abstract
Generative AI produces information on demand, raising the question of why one would ever learn something that a chatbot can always retrieve. In this paper, we introduce Belief in AI Sufficiency (BAS): the belief that acquiring and retaining knowledge is less valuable because AI can provide it when needed. BAS represents a qualitatively distinct conceptual domain from the Google effect, cognitive offloading, and the “News Finds Me” perception. Using four preregistered studies in the United States (development, N = 307; validation, N = 903; experiment, N = 767; test-retest, N = 298), we present evidence for a 12-item BAS measure with a strong general factor structure. In the validation survey, higher BAS was associated with greater reliance on heuristic and less systematic processing, and with reduced factual knowledge. In the experiment, BAS strongly predicted the likelihood to delegate a learning task to AI. The relationship between BAS and the gap between self-reported and measured knowledge was smaller, reflecting reduced accuracy rather than an illusion of knowledge. Finally, BAS scores were approximately equal in mean level and showed moderate rank-order stability across a 3-month period. BAS is one way to measure how far AI is becoming central to the study of how people learn.