ChatGPT is getting smarter, but excessive use could destroy our brains, study warns

Is it an artificial lack of intelligence?

Not only is AI getting frighteningly smart, but it may be making us dumber as well.

Scientists found that students who used ChatGPT to complete essays had poorer cognitive skills than those who relied on just their brain, according to a dystopian new study out of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge.

“Reliance on AI systems can lead to a passive approach and diminished activation of critical thinking skills when the person later performs tasks alone,” the researchers wrote, per the Telegraph.

The team had set out to determine the “cognitive cost” of using large language models (LLMs), which have become increasingly omnipresent in every sector of society, including academia. According to a winter survey by the Pew Research Center, approximately 26% of teen students used the AI chatbot to help them with assignments in 2024 — up from just 13% in 2023.

To determine how using synthetic homework assistants affects the mind, the MIT researchers tasked 54 people with writing several SAT essays, Time Magazine reported. Participants were split into three groups: one that relied on pure brainpower, one that used Google, and a third that enlisted the aid of the now-ubiquitous LLM ChatGPT.

Each person was outfitted with an electroencephalography (EEG) device so researchers could monitor their brain activity while completing the task.

They found that the ChatGPT group “performed worse than their counterparts in the brain-only group at all levels: neural, linguistic, scoring,” according to the Telegraph.

The readings also showed reduced activity in the regions of the brain associated with memory and learning, the authors said, noting that a lot of the “thinking and planning was offloaded.”

In fact, AI-aided scholars got lazier with each subsequent paper to the point that by the third essay, they were simply typing the prompt into ChatGPT and having it do all the work.

“It was more like, ‘Just give me the essay, refine this sentence, edit it, and I’m done,’” said the paper’s main author, Nataliya Kosmyna.

By contrast, the essayists with no external aid demonstrated the highest levels of neural connectivity, especially in regions of the brain responsible for language comprehension, creativity and memory.

The brain-only group was also more engaged and satisfied with their essays, per the study.

Interestingly, the Google group showed just slightly lower levels of engagement, but the same amount of recall — a perhaps troubling prospect given the increasing number of people who dive into research using AI rather than internet search engines.

Researchers deduced that “frequent AI tool users often bypass deeper engagement with material, leading to ‘skill atrophy’ in tasks like brainstorming and problem-solving.”

That could have long-term ramifications, including “diminished critical inquiry, increased vulnerability to manipulation” and “decreased creativity,” the authors said.

Fortunately, the findings weren’t a total indictment of AI in academia.

As a follow-up exam, the scientists asked the ChatGPT group and their brain-only counterparts to rewrite one of their previous essays — but the AI-assisted participants did so without the chatbot, while the unassisted group could use the cutting-edge tech.

Unsurprisingly, the original ChatGPT group didn’t recall much info from their papers, indicating either a lack of engagement or an inability to remember it.

Meanwhile, the former brain-only group exhibited a marked increase in brain activity across all the aforementioned regions despite using the tool.

That suggests if used properly, AI could be a helpful academic tool rather than a cognition-destroying crutch.

The warning about AI-induced brain atrophy comes — somewhat frighteningly — as the technology is becoming more “intelligent.”

Recently, Chinese researchers found the first-ever evidence that AI models like ChatGPT process information similarly to the human mind — particularly when it comes to language grouping.