AI's cost to critical thinking

Globe and Mail

7 days ago

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School may be out for the summer, but the conversation around artificial intelligence in education is heating up.
Joe Castaldo, a Globe and Mail reporter covering AI and technology, recently joined The Decibel podcast to discuss how AI may be dulling students' critical thinking skills and answer the question, 'What are we losing when we rely too much on AI?'
To set the scene, Mr. Castaldo retold a story from Swiss business professor Michael Gerlich: Mr. Gerlich was sitting in a university auditorium behind a student who was using ChatGPT during a lecture to generate questions that the student would go on to ask the guest speaker. The problem was they were questions the speaker had already extensively answered. 'The student wasn't even paying attention,' Mr. Castaldo says. It's one small example of a growing trend that sparked a study by Mr. Gerlich.
Mr. Gerlich surveyed more than 600 students to explore the connection between AI usage and critical thinking. 'He found the higher somebody's AI use, the lower their critical thinking skills,' Mr. Castaldo says. 'And it was most pronounced for younger people, like under 25.'
While the study didn't prove causation, it raises flags among educators. Some professors reported seeing students who couldn't make even basic academic decisions without consulting AI.
However, it's not just students leaning on AI, knowledge workers are too. According to a survey by workplace technology platform OwlLabs and Pulse, nearly 67 per cent of companies are using AI and 46 per cent of employees report they're either heavily using AI at work or somewhat reliant on it.
This surge brings a cost. A study by Microsoft Research and Carnegie Mellon surveyed 319 knowledge workers and found the more confident someone was in AI's abilities, the less critical thinking they reported.
The survey revealed a few motivational barriers that cause workers to opt-out of critical thinking, including:
These barriers contribute to a broader pattern: even well-intentioned or capable knowledge workers may opt out of critical engagement when organizational structures or task demands don't support it.
Microsoft's research suggests that without motivating workers to critique outputs, AI tools tend to shift cognition from production to oversight — and that can be a slippery slope.
'It's not that the tools themselves are bad, it's how we use them. We can use them in good, effective ways, but a lot of that comes down to the individual's motivation,' Mr. Castaldo says.
From boardrooms to classrooms, the real test will be how leaders cultivate environments where AI challenges us, not just does things for us.
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