Does AI make us stupid? Does excessive use of ChatGPT turn you into an inattentive moron?
Those are the latest charges levied against these transformative new technologies, and the critics this time come from MIT. A new research paper, currently going viral on social media, alleges that when writers use ChatGPT to complete a task, their “cognitive activity scaled down.” Titled “Your Brain on ChatGPT,” the implied conclusion is clear: AI might make tasks easier, but the downstream effects are perilous for our long-term ability to think.
At first glance, this result might seem intuitive. After all, if you use GPS to drive around where you live, you might never end up learning the proper routes on your own. Or if you can Google to learn the capital city of any U.S. state, you might never memorize the list of them, as I was required to do in grade school way back when.
But do not panic. The age of stupidity is not yet upon us—at least not compared to how stupid things already have been.