Researchers at Aalto University in Finland have discovered that believing an artificial intelligence is helping us can significantly boost our performance, even if the AI is unreliable or doesn't exist. In an experiment, participants who thought they were receiving AI assistance showed improved performance in a letter recognition task, regardless of whether the AI was reliable or not. This "artificial intelligence placebo effect" has profound implications for evaluating AI systems, as it's hard to discern whether improvements stem from the AI itself or people's belief in its effectiveness.