Do kids still need math facts in the age of AI?

Yes, the quick ones. Nvidia's CEO Jensen Huang says it doesn't matter that kids are forgetting long division and the times tables, and he's right that a calculator can do the arithmetic. But a child still needs the basic facts in their head to notice a wrong answer, follow the next step of a problem and learn the math that's built on them.

What Jensen Huang said

On The Ezra Klein Show on September 23, 2026, Ezra Klein asked Huang about a study of students in China who used AI for homework. Huang agreed that kids are losing basic skills: “Try to get a kid to do long division right now,” he said, and “the multiplication table is starting to be forgotten.”

Asked whether that matters, he answered: “I don't think it does.” He said people will find new skills, admitted he doesn't know his own ZIP code or phone number, and argued that “we're going to lose some finer intellectual dexterity, but we're going to be better systems thinkers.”

Quotes as reported by American Bazaar from the episode “Jensen Huang vs. the A.I. Doomers”. Checked October 14, 2026.

Where he has a point

Few adults do long division on paper, and nobody needs to find a square root by hand. Phones do big sums better than people do. What matters more now is knowing which calculation a problem needs, estimating the answer and deciding whether a result makes sense. That's close to what Huang calls systems thinking.

What the study Klein asked about found

Economists David Strömberg, Victor Lei and Yanhui Wu followed 26,811 students in grades 7 to 12 in a county in central China for 30 months, as most of them started using chatbots like Doubao and DeepSeek.

• Homework scores went up 18%, and homework took about 45 minutes instead of 64.
• Scores on closed-book monthly exams went down 20% within six months.
• High school entrance exam results fell 24%, and college entrance exam results 18%, building up over about two years.
• The losses came from the 4 in 5 users who finished homework very quickly. The 1 in 5 who spent as long as students without AI scored about the same as them on exams.

Using AI to skip the thinking made homework look better and learning worse. Using it alongside the thinking didn't hurt.

From the authors' summary of CEPR Discussion Paper 21577, a working paper that hasn't yet been peer reviewed. Checked October 14, 2026.

Why the quick facts still matter

• To catch a wrong answer. A calculator or a chatbot is only as useful as your sense of whether its answer is right. If 7 × 8 = 54 doesn't look wrong to you, you'll copy it down. Estimating, like 48 × 21 is about 1,000, needs the basic facts too.
• To leave room for the hard part. When 7 × 8 comes back from memory, attention is free for the fraction, the algebra or the word problem it's part of. When it has to be worked out, the bigger problem gets lost. In one brain-imaging study, high school students whose brains recalled facts rather than calculated them scored higher on the PSAT math test.
• For everyday math. A tip, a discount, splitting a bill or checking whether the bigger pack is cheaper: these happen in a shop or at a table, where nobody gets out a phone for every number.

The brain-imaging study: Price, Mazzocco & Ansari, 2013. Everyday math, step by step: tips, discounts, splitting a bill, comparing prices.

What to keep, and what a calculator can do

• Know by heart: addition and subtraction within 20, the times tables up to 10 × 10 (12 × 12 in the UK), and the matching division facts.
• Be able to estimate: round to a friendly number, and know roughly what 10%, 25% and 50% of something is.
• Leave to a calculator: long divisions with many digits, square roots and big multiplications, once a child knows what the operation means and roughly what the answer should be.

For what's expected in each grade, see math facts by grade.

Using AI without losing the learning

1. Try first, then check. Let a child work the problem out before asking a chatbot, and use the chatbot to check or explain, not to do it.
2. Keep the facts fresh with a little practice each day. A couple of minutes of quick recall does more than an hour once a week.
3. Ask how they know. “How did you get that?” shows whether the thinking happened.

Common questions

Did Jensen Huang say kids don't need to learn math?

Not in those words. On The Ezra Klein Show on September 23, 2026, he said it doesn't matter much that kids are forgetting basic math like long division and the multiplication table, because AI will handle those details and people will become better systems thinkers.

Does using AI for homework hurt learning?

In a 30-month study of 26,811 secondary school students in China, students who used AI got 18% higher homework scores but 20% lower scores on closed-book exams within six months. Students who used AI while still spending the time on the work scored about the same as students who didn't use it.

Which math facts should kids know by heart?

Addition and subtraction within 20, the times tables up to 10 × 10 (or 12 × 12 in the UK) and the matching division facts. With those quick, a child can estimate, check answers and keep up with the math that builds on them.

Is long division still worth learning?

Understanding what division means, and being able to estimate a quotient, still matters. Very long divisions done by hand matter less: a calculator is fine for those once a child can tell whether its answer makes sense.