How AI tools like ChatGPT may be eroding our critical thinking abilities

WE'VE all done it: opened ChatGPT for a quick essay draft, work email, or even a birthday toast.

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It's fast and easy, but are we trading convenience for the ability to think for ourselves? A recent study from MIT's Media Lab has sparked debate.

Researchers found that people who relied on ChatGPT for writing tasks showed significantly less brain activity and weaker memory recall than those who worked without it. In other words, when AI does the heavy lifting, our brains may start slacking off.

So, are we heading for what some experts are calling "cognitive debt", a slow erosion of critical thinking and creativity? Or is this just another moral panic, like when calculators first landed in classrooms? Key findings of an MIT study Over four months, the MIT team tracked 54 adults, aged 18-39, as they wrote short essays. Some used ChatGPT, others used Google, while a third group had to rely purely on their own thinking.

Using EEG scans to measure brain activity, researchers discovered that ChatGPT users had the lowest neural engagement and performed the worst in recall tests.

By their third essay, many participants were essentially copy-pasting ChatGPT's answers. Their essays sounded polished but were described by teachers as "soulless" and lacking original thought.