Those who rely too frequently on ChatGPT to take over writing tasks lose cognitive ability in the long term, with a negative impact on independent and critical thinking.
Researchers from the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the US have studied the impact of ChatGPT on the user’s cognitive abilities. Although the researchers themselves indicate that the results of their research are conditional, given the somewhat limited study group (54 people) of mainly students, they still come to some worrying conclusions. Those who rely too heavily on ChatGPT would indeed lose cognitive abilities.
Three Groups
The scientists came to this conclusion after an experiment in which they divided participants into three groups and assigned them the task of writing an essay:
- The LLM group: used ChatGPT exclusively for writing.
- The Search Engine group: used only Google (without AI).
- The Brain-only group: wrote without any digital assistance.
During the writing process, the researchers monitored brain activity via an EEG. Not unexpectedly, they observed the greatest brain activation in participants without aids. The Search Engine group was somewhere in between, with the least measured brain activity for the group working with an LLM.
After three writing sessions, the groups switched roles. In the fourth session, the team that relied solely on their own brains had to work with an LLM. Conversely, the group that had just written three essays with LLM had to work without external tools.
LLM Use Resonates in the Brain
This experiment yielded the most disturbing results. The EEG showed more brain activity in the Brain-only group while using the LLM. Conversely, the activity of the LLM group did not increase proportionally when they had to rely exclusively on their brain. The impact of the three previous writing assignments with LLM clearly resonated.
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The researchers interviewed the participants after the experiments and found that the LLM group was much less able to quote what they had just written than the other participants. The group using a search engine showed average brain activation throughout the experiment, which remained higher than that of team LLM.
From the results, the researchers conclude that the use of LLMs has a negative impact on learning ability and the capacity for critical thinking.
Lost Capacity
The scientists fear that people are losing the capacity to critically engage with subjects. Although the use of LLMs initially lightens the mental load of a task, there is a long-term cost.
Specifically, they suspect that users not only face diminished critical thinking skills but also become more vulnerable to manipulation and lose creativity. The study emphasizes that these suspicions need further investigation.
The findings show that LLMs like ChatGPT carry a significant risk. According to the research, those who use an LLM become less critical, which in turn means that the user cannot adequately analyze new answers from the LLM for truthfulness. Only a few participants during the experiment deviated from the LLM’s reasoning to follow their own idea.
No Satisfaction
Finally, the researchers found that working with an LLM provides no satisfaction. The Brain Only group valued their self-written essays and ideas and stood behind them. The LLM group felt less responsible for the content, as mentioned, did not know the content well, and attributed less value to the texts.
The research suggests that the increasing use of AI actually makes frequent users less capable of using AI critically and thinking for themselves. While ChatGPT and similar tools are growing in importance in both the business world and education, this consideration is of great importance.