New AI models like ChatGPT, which create human-like responses to text prompts, are making sweeping changes to the population. More and more people are turning to the machine-learning algorithm for a wide range of uses, such as summarizing text, writing creative content, and assisting with task prioritization. Many people argue that AI makes modern life easier, but early studies already show these changes don’t bode well for creativity, memory recall, or even basic capability.
ChatGPT Offers Ease and Convenience, but at What Cost?
If you haven’t used ChatGPT before, all you have to do is log in to the website or app and type in your question. ChatGPT will immediately generate a response, and you can then ask follow-up questions if needed. It’s entirely free to use. However, your experience is slower during peak usage hours unless you pay a subscription fee to use the service.
Totally simple, right?
There is a wide range of uses for ChatGPT that could arguably cut down the amount of time people spend looking for answers and generating content. For example, students can use it to summarize a book or study. This program can spend extra time explaining complex concepts to them in a way they can understand. It can even help them write a creative story or essay. Adults could use it to walk through the learning process for a new hobby, or analyze complex legal contracts.
The list goes on and on.
This all sounds great in theory, but taking our time on these tasks may in fact be more ideal for our everyday lives.
ChatGPT Overuse Damages Brain Health and Connectivity
Many people have raised serious concerns and questions about what AI and ChatGPT may be doing to our brains and overall development. In fact, in recent studies, researchers found that many people who rely on the tool for writing struggle to stay mentally engaged. A recent MIT study even shows that 83 percent of ChatGPT users can’t recall what they wrote only minutes later.
The peer-reviewed paper, titled “Your Brain on ChatGPT: Accumulation of Cognitive Debt when Using an AI Assistant for Essay Writing Task”, studies how the human brain behaves when college students use AI too heavily. Interestingly enough, the results show a significant drop in neural activity, memory, and a complete loss of original thought.
The most prominent key finding of the MIT study shows that people who use only their brains to complete essay-related tasks have the strongest memory recall later, not to mention the ability to communicate and process the information on their own. On the other hand, people who used ChatGPT showed the weakest brain connectivity, struggled to remember what they just wrote, and in the final session, showed significantly lower brain engagement and sense of ownership with the material.
But the most concerning finding is that upon repeated use over the span of four months, ChatGPT users consistently underperformed at linguistic, behavioral, and neural levels.
This tells us that not only does AI dumb down the immediate learning process, it can actually make college students dumber over time.
Reliance on AI Causes Cognitive Debt and Atrophy
It’s not just ChatGPT, either. In thinking about the recent prominence of AI, a new Verizon commercial comes to mind.
In it, a man asks his phone to find which of the bottles in front of him is concealer. The phone uses AI to scan the bottles and provides him with an answer. The immediate response is how great of a boyfriend he is for finding the correct product.
But if you think about it, he’s not.
He didn’t find the concealer, AI did.
He took the lazy way out of completing a very simple task for his girlfriend, and likely won’t even remember what the concealer bottle looks like if she were to ask for his assistance again in the future. Furthermore, all his phone did was scan the lettering on the bottles to find the correct one — a task any human being should be able to complete without help.
That’s just one example.
AI and ChatGPT are like hand-holders, babysitting us throughout the most basic tasks we come across. And we’re not going to become better for it: only more dependent upon and attached to technology to get through our daily lives.
Eventually, we’ll even become dumber for it.
Related Article: Microsoft’s 9,000 job cuts in favor of AI worries workers
Does All AI Use have Negative Repercussions on People’s Brains?
But can someone still use AI on occasion without the negative implications? Is there anything we can do? Perhaps.
It seems that the key is to avoid using ChatGPT too often and becoming too reliant on it. In other words, go the old-school route from time to time to make sure you’re still flexing your brain.
To avoid losing your brain power long-term, watch for these warning signs:
- Keep an eye on whether your writing is losing its spark. Does it sound more bland or soulless?
- Watch for feelings of disconnection from your work. Does your writing allow you to feel a sense of satisfaction?
- Make sure to maintain your memory recall. Do you have a hard time remembering what you wrote?
- Don’t become dependent on AI. Do you struggle to complete tasks without using it, or is your performance weaker when you don’t?
If you think your brain may be starting to slip, take a break from AI for a while. Avoid using it for basic tasks, and consider backtracking on your technology use altogether by writing an essay or something creative, like a poem or short story, by hand.
Studies show that writing by hand is better for learning and memory because it deeply engages your brain. It flexes your critical thinking, brain connectivity, and fine motor memory. Handwriting can also encourage more active thinking, which allows you to better understand complex topics and retain information.
So remember, AI may help speed up basic tasks, but it comes at a cost. Balance is everything.
Featured image by Ryan Snaadt, via Unsplash Creative Commons
Additional images by Maxim Tolchinskiy via Unsplash, and © Andrey Popov | Dreamstime.com.