Experiments on collisions of light nuclei at \(\sqrt s = 5.36\) TeV have recently begun at the LHC. In this regard we make predictions for nuclear modification factor \({{R}_{{AA}}}\) in 5.36 TeV C + C, O + O, and Ne + Ne collisions for scenarios with and without quark–gluon plasma formation in \(pp\) collisions. We find a sizeable difference in \({{R}_{{AA}}}\) for these two scenarios, which grows with decreasing atomic number. This says that data on \({{R}_{{AA}}}\) for light nuclei could potentially give information on the presence of jet quenching in \(pp\) collisions.