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Economic Times
2 days ago
- Business
- Economic Times
Forget jobs, AI is taking away much more: Creativity, memory and critical thinking are at risk. New studies sound alarm
Synopsis Artificial intelligence tools are becoming more common. Studies show over-reliance on AI may weaken human skills. Critical thinking and emotional intelligence are important. Businesses invest in AI but not human skills. MIT research shows ChatGPT use reduces memory retention. Users become passive and trust AI answers too much. Independent thinking is crucial for the future. iStock A new study reveals that over-reliance on AI tools may diminish essential human skills like critical thinking and memory. Businesses investing heavily in AI risk undermining their effectiveness by neglecting the development of crucial human capabilities. (Image: iStock) In a world racing toward artificial intelligence-driven efficiency, the question is no longer just about automation stealing jobs, it's about AI gradually chipping away at our most essential human abilities. From creativity to memory, critical thinking to ethical judgment, new research shows that our increasing dependence on AI tools may be making us less capable of using them major studies, one by UK-based learning platform Multiverse and another from the prestigious MIT Media Lab, paint a concerning picture: the more we lean on AI, the more we risk weakening the very cognitive and emotional muscles that differentiate us from the machines we're building. According to a recent report by Multiverse, businesses are pouring millions into AI tools with the promise of higher productivity and faster decision-making. Yet very few are investing in the development of the human skills required to work alongside AI effectively."Leaders are spending millions on AI tools, but their investment focus isn't going to succeed," said Gary Eimerman, Chief Learning Officer at Multiverse. "They think it's a technology problem when it's really a human and technology problem."The research reveals that real AI proficiency doesn't come from mastering prompts — it comes from critical thinking, analytical reasoning, creative problem-solving, and emotional intelligence. These are the abilities that allow humans to make meaning from what AI outputs and to question what it cannot understand. Without these, users risk becoming passive consumers of AI-generated content rather than active interpreters and decision-makers. The Multiverse study identified thirteen human capabilities that differentiate a casual AI user from a so-called 'power user.' These include resilience, curiosity, ethical oversight, adaptability, and the ability to verify and refine AI output.'It's not just about writing prompts,' added Imogen Stanley, a Senior Learning Scientist at Multiverse. 'The real differentiators are things like output verification and creative experimentation. AI is a co-pilot, but we still need a pilot.'Unfortunately, as AI becomes more accessible, these skills are being underutilized and in some cases, lost this warning, a separate study from the MIT Media Lab examined the cognitive cost of relying on large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT. Over a four-month period, 54 students were divided into three groups: one used ChatGPT, another used Google, and a third relied on their own knowledge alone. The results were sobering. Participants who frequently used ChatGPT not only showed reduced memory retention and lower scores, but also diminished brain activity when attempting to complete tasks without AI assistance. According to the researchers, the AI users performed worse 'at all levels: neural, linguistic, and scoring.'Google users fared somewhat better, but the 'Brain-only' group, those who engaged with material independently, consistently outperformed the others in depth of thought, originality, and neural ChatGPT and similar tools offer quick answers and seemingly flawless prose, the MIT study warns of a hidden toll: mental passivity. As convenience increases, users become less inclined to question or evaluate the accuracy and nuance of AI responses.'This convenience came at a cognitive cost,' the MIT researchers wrote. 'Diminishing users' inclination to critically evaluate the LLM's output or 'opinions'.'This passivity can lead to over-trusting AI-generated answers, even when they're factually incorrect or ethically biased, a concern that grows with each advancement in generative the numbers and neural scans lies a deeper question: what kind of future are we building if we lose the ability to think, question, and create independently?
India Today
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- India Today
Epstein scandal deepens after letters from celebrities and power brokers surface
The scandal surrounding Jeffrey Epstein, the disgraced financier and convicted sex offender, expanded after a collection of unseen letters from influential individuals to Epstein, as well as photos from inside his notorious Manhattan mansion, were released by the New York letters were compiled as a birthday tribute for Epstein's 63rd birthday in 2016. Their release has increased speculation around the connections between Epstein and prominent figures, including US President Donald Trump. Epstein, who died in a New York jail in 2019, was known for maintaining a social circle of the world's EXPOSE PERSONAL CONNECTIONSAccording to the report, former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and his wife praised Epstein as "A COLLECTOR OF PEOPLE" and praised his curiosity, saying, "there is no limit to your curiosity." They wished him a long, healthy life, hoping to continue enjoying his company for years to come. Film director Woody Allen also wrote to Epstein, reminiscing about his dinner parties at Epstein's Upper East Side townhouse, which he described as "always interesting." Allen mentioned the diverse guests, including "politicians, scientists, teachers, magicians, comedians, intellectuals, journalists" and "even royalty." He also noted the service was often provided "by some professional houseman and just as often by several young women" who reminded him of "Castle Dracula where Lugosi has three young female vampires who service the place."Other letter writers were billionaire Mortimer Zuckerman, linguist Noam Chomsky and his wife, Joichi Ito, former head of MIT Media Lab, physicist Lawrence Krauss, and Harvard biologist Martin Nowak. While some declined to comment, Krauss said he did not recall the letter but remembered 'several lunches with very interesting discussions' at Epstein's SHOW EPSTEIN WITH GLOBAL POWER PLAYERSThe Times also published images of Epstein's seven-story mansion. The photos show a taxidermied tiger and a first-edition copy of Vladimir Nabokov's controversial novel Lolita -- a story of a man's sexual obsession with a young girl -- prominently cameras were found in Epstein's bedroom and adjacent rooms. In the so-called "massage room," where many victims say they were assaulted, there were paintings of naked women, shelves stocked with lubricants, and a large silver ball and on the walls show Epstein alongside longtime associate Ghislaine Maxwell -- who is serving a 20-year sentence for sex trafficking -- as well as famous figures like Pope John Paul II, Mick Jagger, Elon Musk, Fidel Castro, Bill Clinton, Larry Summers, Richard Branson, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, and former Trump adviser Steve photo frame displayed a dollar bill signed by Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates with the note "I was wrong!" which the Times speculated might have been a bet mansion also featured eerie dcor such as framed prosthetic eyeballs near the entrance and a suspended sculpture of a woman in a bridal gown clutching a rope in the central atrium. A chalkboard with a map of Israel bore the signature of former Israeli Prime Minister died by suicide in federal custody in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. His death has fuelled numerous conspiracy theories, partly due to his ties to powerful individuals.- EndsMust Watch
Axios
14-07-2025
- Lifestyle
- Axios
5 ways to fall in love with Richmond again
If you ask Elaine Digges, becoming a Richmonder and falling (or staying) in love with this city go hand in hand. Why it matters: Both require intention and trying harder than you might somewhere else, she says. The big picture: Digges, the mind behind one of Richmond's most well-known Instagram accounts, miss_elaine_neous, tells Axios that the city's guardedness makes it tricky to click here. Native Richmonders have their set friend groups, making it challenging for newcomers to join them and feel welcome. And some Richmonders fall out of love with the city they've been in for so long because they feel stuck in the same bubble. That's actually happening in a lot of places right now: People are spending less time exploring their own cities than they used to pre-pandemic, instead sticking to their own neighborhoods and familiar spots, MIT Media Lab reports. Zoom in: The University of Richmond grad fell into that cycle shortly before 2020, before launching her Instagram account documenting local events. But eventually, she fell back in love with this city. Her top tips — 1: Step outside your 15-minute bubble A Richmonder knows the difference between Lakeside and Northside, Digges says. They know the best tacos are deep in South Richmond. And that's because they don't stick to one zone. Pick an interest, like bookstores or coffee shops, and explore a different one every week until you've been to every neighborhood in the city. It'll make exploring less overwhelming. 2: Get comfortable showing up alone Go to the happy hour, the sports league, etc. by yourself. Digges says she's noticed Richmonders open up more when you're solo. Sometimes taking a book or journal to a restaurant or bar can help. 3: Find an issue you care about and get involved Head to the public district meetings, the forums and other opportunities to voice your opinions. "When you care more, you realize you can do more," Digges says. "And that, I think, weaves you into the city so easily." 4: Become a regular Establish "your" neighborhood bar and talk to the bartenders. Get to know the person behind the counter at your corner store. 5. Write down what you dislike about Richmond, then bust the myths Digges says Richmonders would be surprised at how often the gripes are fixable.
Time of India
12-07-2025
- Science
- Time of India
ChatGPT making us dumb & dumber, but we can still come out wiser
Claude Shannon, one of the fathers of AI, once wrote rather disparagingly: 'I visualize a time when we will be to robots what dogs are to humans, and I'm rooting for the machines.' As we enter the age of AI — arguably, the most powerful technology of our times — many of us fear that this prophecy is coming true. Powerful AI models like ChatGPT can create complex essays, poetry and pictures; Google's Veo stitches together cinema-quality videos; Deep Research agents produce research reports at the drop of a prompt. Our innate human abilities of thinking, creating, and reasoning seem to be now duplicated, sometimes surpassed, by AI. This seemed to be confirmed by a recent — and quite disturbing — MIT Media Lab study, 'Your Brain on ChatGPT'. It suggested that while AI tools like ChatGPT help us write faster, they may be making our minds slower. Through a four-month meticulously executed experiment with 54 participants, researchers found that those who used ChatGPT for essay writing exhibited up to 55% lower brain activity, as measured by EEG signals, compared to those who wrote without assistance. If this was not troubling enough, in a later session where ChatGPT users were asked to write unaided, their brains remained less engaged than people without AI ('brain-only' participants, as the study quaintly labelled them). Memory also suffered — only 20% could recall what they had written, and 16% even denied authorship of their own text! The message seemed to be clear: outsourcing thinking to machines may be efficient, but it risks undermining our capacity for deep thought, retention, and ownership of ideas. Technology has always changed us, and we have seen this story many times before. There was a time when you remembered everyone's phone numbers, now you can barely recall your family's, if that. You remembered roads, lanes and routes; if you did not, you consulted a paper map or asked someone. Today, Google and other map apps do that work for us. Facebook reminds us of people's birthdays; email answers suggest themselves, sparing us of even that little effort of thinking. When autonomous cars arrive, will we even remember how to drive or just loll around in our seats as it takes us to our destination? Jonathan Haidt, in his 'The Anxious Generation,' points out how smartphones radically reshaped childhood. Unstructured outdoor play gave way to scrolling, and social bonds turned into notifications. Teen anxiety, loneliness, and attention deficits all surged. From calculators diminishing our mental arithmetic, to GPS weakening our spatial memory, every tool we invent alters us — subtly or drastically. 'Do we shape our tools, or do our tools shape us?' is a quote commonly misattributed to Marshall McLuhan but this question is hauntingly relevant in the age of AI. If we let machines do the thinking, what happens to our human capacity to think, reflect, reason, and learn? This is especially troubling for children, and more so in India. For one, India has the highest usage of ChatGPT globally. Most of it is by children and young adults, who are turning into passive consumers of AI-generated knowledge. Imagine a 16-year-old using ChatGPT to write a history essay. The output might be near-perfect, but what has she actually learned? The MIT study suggests — very little. Without effortful recall or critical thinking, she might not retain concepts, nor build the muscle of articulation. With exams still based on memory and original expression, and careers requiring problem-solving, this is a silent but real risk. The real questions, however, are not whether the study is correct or is exaggerating, or whether AI is making us dumber or not, but what can we do about it. We definitely need some guardrails and precautions, and we need to start building them now. I believe that we should teach ourselves and our children to: Ask the right questions: As answers become commodities, asking the right questions will be the differentiator. We need to relook at our education system and pedagogy and bring back this unique human skill of curiosity. Intelligence is not just about answers. It is about the courage to think, to doubt, and to create Invert classwork and homework: Reserve classroom time for 'brain-only' activities like journaling, debates, and mental maths. Homework can be about using AI tools to learn what will be discussed in class the next day. AI usage codes: Just as schools restrict smartphone use, they should set clear boundaries for when and how AI can be used. Teacher-AI synergy: Train educators to use AI as a co-teacher, and not a crutch. Think of AI as Augmented Intelligence, not an alternative one. Above all, make everyone AI literate: Much like reading, writing, and arithmetic were foundational in the digital age, knowing how to use AI wisely is the new essential skill of our time. AI literacy is more than just knowing prompts. It means understanding when to use AI, and when not to; how to verify AI output for accuracy, bias, and logic; how to collaborate with AI without losing your own voice, and how to maintain cognitive and ethical agency in the age of intelligent machines. Just as we once taught 'reading, writing, adding, multiplying,' we must now teach 'thinking, prompting, questioning, verifying.' History shows that humans adapt. The printing press did not destroy memory; calculators did not end arithmetic; smartphones did not abolish communication. We evolved with them—sometimes clumsily, but always creatively. Today, with AI, the challenge is deeper because it imitates human cognition. In fact, as AI challenges us with higher levels of creativity and cognition, human intelligence and connection will become even more prized. Take chess: a computer defeated Gary Kasparov in chess back in 1997; since then, a computer or AI can defeat any chess champion hundred times out of hundred. But human 'brains-only' chess has become much more popular now, as millions follow D Gukesh's encounters with Magnus Carlsen. So, if we cultivate AI literacy and have the right guardrails in place; if we teach ourselves and our children to think with AI but not through it, we can come out wiser, not weaker. Facebook Twitter Linkedin Email Disclaimer Views expressed above are the author's own.
The Age
10-07-2025
- The Age
AI may make us more efficient, but it's turning our brains to mush
Increasingly, more and more of us are using ChatGPT or other generative-AI sidekicks for work-related tasks. I get it, they're convenient, and can cut out some of the drudgery of the workday. But they also might be turning our brains to mush. When I surveyed 2000 professionals last month, 88 per cent admitted they'd used ChatGPT or similar to write for them, and 63 per cent said they felt 'foggy' or 'weirdly uncreative' afterwards. Yet deadlines still loom, so most people do the obvious thing: they open ChatGPT again. The true price of that convenience is only starting to surface, and the ultimate loser is your prefrontal cortex. A recent MIT Media Lab study, Your Brain on ChatGPT: Accumulation of Cognitive Debt, wired participants to EEG headsets while they wrote essays under three conditions. ChatGPT group: used ChatGPT exclusively. Search engine group: used Google (no AI). Brain-only group: relied solely on memory and reasoning. Which group do you think had the lowest levels of brain activity? Unsurprisingly, the ChatGPT users. They displayed the weakest connectivity of all three groups, and brain activity shrank the more they relied on the model. Worse, when those same participants later had to write without AI, their brain activity stayed low. The researchers call this 'cognitive debt': the more you lean on AI to think, the harder it becomes to think without it. Here's why this should rattle you, especially if you're a manager (or parent). When ChatGPT gives you ideas before you try to generate your own, your brain's creative circuits stay inactive. 1. AI is eroding cognitive independence. The more you outsource, the harder it becomes to start, or continue, unaided. That's a vicious loop: weakened neural pathways make independent thinking feel exhausting, which nudges you back to AI, which weakens the pathways further. 2. Workforce homogenisation. If everyone begins with the same machine-generated draft, ideas converge on mediocrity. Competitive advantage flows to the few who still train their own creative muscles.
