Thinking capped

With tools like ChatGPT threatening to make the brain lazy, the question is whether humans will remain conscious architects of a future shaped by AI or passive participants in it

- VATSALA MISHRA

It has been barely three years since generative artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots such as ChatGPT appeared on the scene, and there is already concern over how they might be affecting the human brain. The early prognosis isn't good.

The findings of a recent study by researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Media Lab, Wellesley College, and MassArt indicate that tools such as ChatGPT negatively impact the neural, linguistic, and cognitive capabilities of humans.

While this study is preliminary and limited in scope, involving barely 54 subjects aged 18 to 34, it found that those who used ChatGPT for writing essays (as part of the research experiment) showed measurably lower brain activity than their peers who didn't. "Writing without (AI) assistance increased brain network interactions across multiple frequency bands, engaging higher cognitive load, stronger executive control, and deeper creative processing," it found.

Various experts in India, too, reiterate the concerns of overdependence on AI, to the extent where people outsource even thinking to AI. Those dealing with the human brain define this as "cognitive offloading" which, they caution, can diminish critical thinking and reasoning capability while also building a sense of social isolation—in effect, dragging humans into an 'idiot trap'.

Training the brain to be lazy

"We now rely on AI for tasks we used to do ourselves—writing essays, solving problems, even generating ideas," says Nitin Anand, additional professor of clinical psychology, National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (Nimhans), Bengaluru. "That means less practice in critical thinking, memory recall, and creative reasoning."

This dependence, he adds, is also weakening people's ability to delay gratification. "AI tools are designed for speed. They answer instantly. But that trains people to expect quick solutions everywhere, reducing patience and long-term focus."