There is no denying that the advent of AI has some wonderful connotations. No longer having to scroll through endless links to find information is a godsend, and streamlining certain tedious processes is brilliant. But people have begun leaning on AI too heavily in their day-to-day life, and it’s affecting their cognitive abilities, including skills we use to communicate.
If you’re the kind of person who uses ChatGPT, or any other AI, to ‘improve’ your work, you could be doing more damage than you think. Recent studies have proven that reliance on AI has begun to stunt people’s brain development. No longer using our own creative or problem-solving skills is lowering brain function.
A study group was put together by scientists at MIT to observe the effects of ChatGPT on the brain. Monitors were attached to subjects to scan brain activity, and two groups performed the same task. They were told to write a short essay. Half the group used the ChatGPT 4.0 model, the other half used their own brains.
The study showed that over multiple tests, people using AI had significantly decreased brain function. The scans showed much lower brain connectivity, indicating lower cognitive engagement. In other words, ChatGPT stopped people from thinking for themselves.
Stage four of the test had the roles switched. People previously writing using only their brains were allowed to use ChatGPT, and vice versa. The results were undeniable. People who had been consistently using their brains performed significantly better.
Don’t Turn Your Brain To AI Slop
One of the reasons that AI still hasn’t taken the jobs of people like me is that it is unable to generate original thought. All that something like ChatGPT can do is regurgitate information. This is precisely why it is a great tool.
If I need to find out something, AI is there to dig through archives at never-before-seen speeds and regurgitate. But it’ll never write a truly beautiful poem, although it may be able to regurgitate a rehash of someone else’s.
This is why it’s so important to try not to lean too heavily on it. Creativity and the ability to think critically are integral to human intelligence. They both require practice, and can be shared and dulled with care or inattention. Relying on ChatGPT to work something out for you, or ‘make this email sound better,’ is denying yourself the opportunity to use your brain.
In the same way that relying entirely on machines to do manual tasks would eventually turn muscles to fat, always relying on ChatGPT or AI to do your thinking and creating will eventually turn your brain to soup.