Experts Concerned That AI Is Making Us Stupider
Artificial intelligence might be creeping its way into every facet of our lives — but that doesn't mean it's making us smarter.
Quite the reverse. A new analysis of recent research by The Guardian looked at a potential irony: whether we're giving up more than we gain by shoehorning AI into our day-to-day work, offloading so many intellectual tasks that it erodes our own cognitive abilities.
The analysis points to a number of studies that suggest a link between cognitive decline and AI tools, especially in critical thinking. One research article, published in the journal Frontiers in Psychology — and itself run through ChatGPT to make "corrections," according to a disclaimer that we couldn't help but notice — suggests that regular use of AI may cause our actual cognitive chops and memory capacity to atrophy.
Another study, by Michael Gerlich of the Swiss Business School in the journal Societies, points to a link between "frequent AI tool usage and critical thinking abilities," highlighting what Gerlich calls the "cognitive costs of AI tool reliance."
The researcher uses an example of AI in healthcare, where automated systems make a hospital more efficient at the cost of full-time professionals whose job is "to engage in independent critical analysis" — to make human decisions, in other words.
None of that is as far-fetched as it sounds. A broad body of research has found that brain power is a "use it or lose it" asset, so it makes sense that turning to ChatGPT for everyday challenges like writing tricky emails, doing research, or solving problems would have negative results.
As humans offload increasingly complex problems onto various AI models, we also become prone to treating AI like a "magic box," a catch-all capable of doing all our hard thinking for us. This attitude is heavily pushed by the AI industry, which uses a blend of buzzy technical terms and marketing hype to sell us on ideas like "deep learning," "reasoning," and "artificial general intelligence."
Case in point, another recent study found that a quarter of Gen Zers believe AI is "already conscious." By scraping thousands of publicly available datapoints in seconds, AI chatbots can spit out seemingly thoughtful prose, which certainly gives the appearance of human-like sentience. But it's that exact attitude that experts warn is leading us down a dark path.
"To be critical of AI is difficult — you have to be disciplined," says Gerlich. "It is very challenging not to offload your critical thinking to these machines."
The Guardian's analysis also cautions against painting with too broad a brush and blaming AI, exclusively, for the decline in basic measures of intelligence. That phenomenon has plagued Western nations since the 1980s, coinciding with the rise of neoliberal economic policies that led governments in the US and UK to roll back funding for public schools, disempower teachers, and end childhood food programs.
Still, it's hard to deny stories from teachers that AI cheating is nearing crisis levels. AI might not have started the trend, but it may well be pushing it to grim new extremes.
More on AI: Columbia Student Kicked Out for Creating AI to Cheat, Raises Millions to Turn It Into a Startup
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