ChatGPT is Making You Dumb: Latest MIT Study

ChatGPT and other types of AI tools have become our new best friend in the age of AI. Everything can be written, generated, and ideas can be brainstormed with the help of these tools. But can this digital convenience be toxic to our brains? This question became the subject of a recent study conducted by the MIT Media Lab, which provided some alarming revelations to students, professionals and anyone who does creative or academic work with the help of AI.

What was the finding of the study?

The task of MIT researchers was to answer an uncontroversial but critical question: does the use of ChatGPT impact our brain functioning? To determine that, they involved 54 people aged between 18 and 39 years, and divided them into three groups. One did describe the process of writing through ChatGPT, one used the Google Search engine, and the last one wrote without the assistance of any digital means. Meanwhile, their brains were scanned by using EEG.

1. Minimum Brain Activity: The ChatGPT group had the minimal brain activity with concentration in the sections of the brain associated with critical thinking, memory, and creativity. Their essays might have appeared to be clean, however, they continuously were lower in their performance than other groups both in writing effectiveness and number of recollections about their work.
2. Poorer Memory and Ownership: The ChatGPT users had difficulties keeping in mind what they wrote or who they referred to. Most of them had no sense of ownership in their essays since the formulation was left to the AI.
3. Middle of the Line: The people who accessed Google to take information were somewhere in the middle. They had an increased brain activity when compared to the ChatGPT group but less than those who worked on their own.
4. Best Results in the absence of AI: The group that was asked to write the essay without any help showed not only the highest brain activity but also relied more on original ideas and excelled in all the categories. They said that they were more curious, more satisfied and more possessive of their work.

The fact that the role of the groups interchanged after several months is perhaps the most surprising answer of them all. Individuals who began with ChatGPT still exhibited low brain activity even when they were required to write without the use of any tools. Conversely, people who had written alone kept up with high involvement rates, even scoring high rates when they used ChatGPT later, implying that the initial condition is important.

So What Does This Mean in the Way of Learning and Work?

The MIT survey is not the only one which raises concerns. Another study corresponds to this fact: the overuse of AI may result in such a phenomenon as cognitive offloading, that is, our way of relying on technology rather than using our memory and critical thinking powers. Although AI has the potential to make learning even more personal and efficient, it can lead to loss of skills to memorize information, solve problems, and think out of the box.

Should We Stop Using ChatGPT?

No, that’s not the conclusion of the MIT Media Lab study. The most important lesson here is the way we are applying AI. ChatGPT can improve our productivity without us getting numb to our brain when used as an assistant to verify facts, generate ideas, and explain concepts. However, by letting it do all the thinking we can find ourselves out of contact with our ability and end up losing skills we possess. 

AI is here to stay and tools such as ChatGPT are simply going to become smarter. However, in order not to dull your wits, use these AI as an assistant and not a crutch. Make your first draft, brainstorm what you want to do, and have ChatGTP turn up your thinking (rather than replace it with their calculative thinking). The human brain still happens to be the most useful weapon in the digital era after all, don’t let it lose in front of an artificial intelligence.