Artificial intelligence, which was supposed to support the development of human skills, may have unexpected consequences, warn researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
A team of researchers led by Dr. Nataliya Kosmyna conducted an experiment whose preliminary results suggest that prolonged use of tools such as ChatGPT may weaken users’ memory, creativity, and cognitive engagement. The work was published as a preprint on arXiv, without formal scientific review, due to the urgency of the topic, as the authors emphasize.
The aim of the study was to test whether an “unused” brain can, according to Lamarck’s old theory, lose its abilities when it is too often replaced by artificial intelligence. Fifty-four people aged 18–39 from the Boston area were invited to participate in the experiment. Divided into three groups, they were asked to write SAT essays using ChatGPT, Google search, or their own knowledge alone. The essays covered topics such as ethics and psychology.
During the writing process, the subjects’ brain activity was recorded using electroencephalography (EEG), analyzing 32 regions of the brain. It turned out that those using ChatGPT showed the lowest neural engagement, less activity in the EEG bands associated with creative thinking (alpha, theta, delta) and wrote essays that were rated by teachers as derivative, formulaic, and “soulless.”
What’s more, these individuals lost motivation to work independently over time, resorted to copy-paste functions more often, and had trouble reproducing their own texts. When asked to rewrite one of the essays—this time without AI assistance—their cognitive performance was significantly weaker than that of the group that had originally worked independently.
In contrast, participants who wrote without assistance showed the highest brain activity and reported the greatest satisfaction with the results of their work. The group using Google also achieved good results – their brains remained active, and the essays themselves were more diverse and original.
The researchers emphasize that the order may be crucial – AI can support development, but only if the user first engages in the task on their own. People who used ChatGPT only after writing on their own showed an increase in neural activity, which gives hope that, when used properly, AI can be a tool that supports rather than replaces thinking.
MIT researchers are continuing their research and are currently analyzing the impact of artificial intelligence on the brain activity of programmers. Preliminary results suggest that AI may also limit cognitive abilities in this field, especially among beginners, whose tasks are increasingly being taken over by machines.
The study is preliminary and based on a small sample, but it already provokes important reflection on the role of artificial intelligence in education, work, and everyday life.
