AI eroding human cognition has been a concern raised by many. But now, science also seems to support it.
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If you’re a person who values their intellectual development, then you may have felt some guilt about using generative AI in your work. Not just that, you may also feel that you’re making yourself “dumber” by relying more on AI. Well, turns out, you’re actually right, according to a study conducted by MIT. The recently published study concluded that generative AI tools like ChatGPT are eroding critical thinking skills.
Outsourcing Intelligence
The study was conducted on 54 subjects divided into three groups. Each group was assigned the task of writing several SAT-level essays. One group used ChatGPT, another group used the Google search engine, and the last group used no tools at all. Tracking the brain activity of each group, the researchers learned that ChatGPT users had the poorest performance at neural, linguistic, and behavioral levels. ChatGPT users were also noted for becoming lazier as time progressed, often resorting to simply copying and pasting. From this, the researchers concluded that generative AI often harms learning. It’s important to note that the study is not peer-reviewed yet. However, conversations on the negative impacts of AI on human intelligence predate this paper.
Grok, is this true?
If you’ve been on Twitter (X) lately, you’ll see a common phrase in most comment sections: “@grok is this true?” in which users prompt the AI model Grok to verify the content of a post they disagree with or want to disprove. This phenomenon has led to conversations online on the reliance on AI for fact-checking and researching. Regardless of your opinion on the matter, one fact is true: AI subsidizes laziness. While generative AI is quite effective in certain tasks, it’s far less reliable in verifying information in real time. People who don’t put in the appropriate amount of time and effort to research and find accurate information can now post misleading information by using AI as a “source”. This severely damages the pursuit of truth, especially in the online space, where misinformation is rampant.
An Idiocratic Future?
This trend paints a bleak picture of the future, especially when thinking about the younger generation, which is being raised in a world already adapted to AI. With access to AI tools becoming easier by the day, the cognitive impacts that the study demonstrated might be observed even strongly on young people. A survey from January 2025 reported that 26% of teenagers in the U.S. have used AI for their school work. There is no reason to believe that this is not the case in Ethiopia as well.
As more and more people outsource their cognition to AI, we end up in a world where whoever controls AI controls the people. If you don’t have the critical thinking skills to evaluate information and simply prompt an AI to fact-check it for you, then one must simply train the AI to be biased towards their cause to have your support. This will have dire implications on intellectual freedom and integrity.
What is to be done?
So, should you just be a Luddite, escape to the woods with a bunch of books, perhaps? Well, no. The main thing to do is to resist; resist the laziness that prevents you from facing the discomfort of learning. AI is unavoidable these days, and you shouldn’t feel guilty for using it to make your email sound more polite. However, you must actively develop your critical thinking skills. Read a book, write what you think about it, no matter how bad it may sound, actively seek opinions you disagree with, and try to engage with them. That way, you can retain something that seems to be disappearing too quickly these days.
