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Tyler Cowen: Does AI Make Us Stupid?
Tyler Cowen: Does AI Make Us Stupid?
“Do not panic,” writes Tyler Cowen. “The age of stupidity is not yet upon us—at least not compared to how stupid things already have been.” (Illustration by The Free Press; photo by Orlando via Getty Images)
A viral new research paper claims ChatGPT will stop us from thinking. Really?
By Tyler Cowen
06.23.25 — Tech and Business
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The Free Press
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Tyler Cowen: Does AI Make Us Stupid?

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.


Read
AI Will Change What It Is to Be Human. Are We Ready?

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. 

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Tyler Cowen
Tyler Cowen is Holbert L. Harris Professor of Economics at George Mason University and also Faculty Director of the Mercatus Center. He received his PhD in economics from Harvard University in 1987. His book The Great Stagnation: How America Ate the Low-Hanging Fruit of Modern History, Got Sick, and Will (Eventually) Feel Better was a New York Times best-seller. He was named in an Economist poll as one of the most influential economists of the last decade and Bloomberg Businessweek dubbed him "America's Hottest Economist." Foreign Policy magazine named him as one of its "Top 100 Global Thinkers" of 2011. He co-writes a blog at www.MarginalRevolution.com, hosts a podcast Conversations with Tyler, and is co-founder of an online economics education project, MRU.org. He is also director of the philanthropic project Emergent Ventures.
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