Using ChatGPT for work? It might make you stupid

[highplainsdem]

Source: The Times (UK)

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Academics at the MIT Media Lab, a research laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, tracked students who relied on large language models (LLMs) to help to write essays.

These students showed reduced brain activity, poorer memory and weaker engagement than those who wrote essays using other methods, the study found.

The researchers used electroencephalogram scans (EEGs), which measure electrical activity in the brain, to monitor 54 students in three groups over multiple essay-writing sessions: one that used ChatGPT, one that used Google, and one that relied on no external help.

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In the paper, titled “Your brain on ChatGPT”, the researchers concluded: “We demonstrate the pressing matter of a likely decrease in learning skills based on the results of our study. The use of LLM had a measurable impact on participants, and while the benefits were initially apparent, as we demonstrated over the course of 4 months, the LLM group’s participants performed worse than their counterparts in the brain-only group at all levels: neural, linguistic, scoring.”

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Read more: https://www.thetimes.com/uk/technology-uk/article/using-chatgpt-for-work-it-might-make-you-more-stupid-dtvntprtk

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Much more at the link. I've been telling people that AI tools dumb down and deskill users, and this study seems to be the clearest evidence of that.

This article should be required reading for every teacher, every school administrator, and every AI user or anyone considering using genAI like ChatGPT.

More, from the study's abstract:

https://www.media.mit.edu/publications/your-brain-on-chatgpt/

This study explores the neural and behavioral consequences of LLM-assisted essay writing. Participants were divided into three groups: LLM, Search Engine, and Brain-only (no tools). Each completed three sessions under the same condition. In a fourth session, LLM users were reassigned to Brain-only group (LLM-to-Brain), and Brain-only users were reassigned to LLM condition (Brain-to-LLM). A total of 54 participants took part in Sessions 1-3, with 18 completing session 4. We used electroencephalography (EEG) to assess cognitive load during essay writing, and analyzed essays using NLP, as well as scoring essays with the help from human teachers and an AI judge. Across groups, NERs, n-gram patterns, and topic ontology showed within-group homogeneity. EEG revealed significant differences in brain connectivity: Brain-only participants exhibited the strongest, most distributed networks; Search Engine users showed moderate engagement; and LLM users displayed the weakest connectivity. Cognitive activity scaled down in relation to external tool use.

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Self-reported ownership of essays was the lowest in the LLM group and the highest in the Brain-only group. LLM users also struggled to accurately quote their own work. While LLMs offer immediate convenience, our findings highlight potential cognitive costs. Over four months, LLM users consistently underperformed at neural, linguistic, and behavioral levels. These results raise concerns about the long-term educational implications of LLM reliance and underscore the need for deeper inquiry into AI's role in learning.

Direct link to the study at Arxiv where you'll find a link to download the 206-page PDF:

https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.08872

I haven't downloaded it because, after 2-1/2 years of reading all I could find on ChatGPT and other genAI tools - and trying them myself - the study results weren't at all surprising. They won't be a surprise to most teachers, either.