Study Finds AI Dulls Brain Activity

A new study from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has found that using generative AI tools like ChatGPT can significantly reduce brain activity during writing tasks, and may impair users’ ability to retain information and think critically.

Who And Why?

The research was led by Dr Nataliya Kosmyna, a scientist at MIT’s Media Lab, and was motivated by growing concerns about the cognitive impact of widespread reliance on AI tools in education and professional life. For example, the team said they wanted to understand how large language models (LLMs) like OpenAI’s GPT-4o affect human cognition when people use them to perform tasks traditionally done unaided, such as writing short essays.