Using AI could impact your ability to learn, think and remember, a new study has found.
Students who used large language models (LLM) like ChatGPT to write essays showed to have poorer memory, reduced brain activity and weaker engagement than those who used other methods, the study found.
Researchers at MIT Media Lab measured electrical activity in the brain to track 54 students over several essay-writing sessions.
One group used ChatGPT, another used Google and the last had no external help at all.
The group who used AI had a ‘measurable impact’ and had a ‘likely decrease in learning skills’, the academics at the research laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology found.
Even though ‘the benefits were initially apparent’, this group ‘performed worse than their counterparts in the brain-only group at all levels: neural, linguistic, scoring’ across a four month period.
The researchers, who published their study in the paper ‘Your brain on ChatGPT’, deduced that those who used ChatGPT would use their brains less.
These students would struggle to quote or remember the essays they had just written as well as feeling little ownership over their work.
Meanwhile, the Google users demonstrated ‘moderate engagement’ and the group who had no external involvement showed more brain activity and original ideas in their content.
If these students then tried to use ChatGPT, their brain activity, which is measured using electroencephalogram scans (EEGs), would still increase.
Researchers presumed this was because the students would be trying to combine the new tool with what they already know.
Whereas the ChatGPT group was still demonstrating less activity, even when they were tasked with writing the essay themselves.
The LLM users were able to answer questions with ‘reduced friction’ compared to the search engine group, the users admitted.
However, they said: ‘This convenience came at a cognitive cost, diminishing users’ inclination to critically evaluate the LLM’s output or “opinions” (probabilistic answers based on the training datasets).
‘This highlights a concerning evolution of the “echo chamber” effect: rather than disappearing, it has adapted to shape user exposure through algorithmically curated content.
‘What is ranked as “top” is ultimately influenced by the priorities of the LLM’s shareholders.’
