No one can deny the joy ChatGPT and similar tools bring us while writing, researching, or even while brainstorming ideas. Though, just out of curiosity, what do you think happens in your brain when you use AI as a tool?
An MIT Media lab study might give you some pause before you click “generate” in the future. They scanned participants’ brains while writing essays for 4 months. The twist? The participants essay writing process had AI components and were using different writing methodologies. The findings were astonishing.
What They Did
54 students participated in the study where they were tasked with writing essays in 3 different conditions.
- Writing essays on their own without any external input.
- Writing essays using Google Search for help.
- Writing essays using ChatGPT for help.
While they worked, EEG brain scans were monitoring their brain’s “connectivity” and “engagement” during the different task phases. Then, the researchers tested for recall of described written text and next, the participants were debriefed.
The Shocking Findings
Here’s the kicker: The group using ChatGPT showed significantly less brain engagement than the others. Their neural connectivity, a measure of how actively different parts of the brain are working together, dropped nearly by half compared to people writing solo.
Even more striking, over 80% of these AI users could not recall a single sentence from their essay in a matter of minutes! Meanwhile, the people who wrote without AI had no problems recalling their words.
What’s more, even after spending some time writing without ChatGPT, those who initially relied on AI still showed decreased brain engagement and performance compared to those who never used AI. This suggests that the need to think and create on one’s own may become blunted over time with the more AI tools one relies on.
Quicker, but Shallow?
Users of ChatGPT completed their essays in 60% less time, spending 32% less of their mental resources on the tasks. Wonderful, isn’t it? Their teachers, however, noted that the essays, while missing the intuition and creativity of a human touch, failed to capture the human element.
Who Did Best?
Incredibly, students who began writing independently before using AI tools performed best overall. Their memory retention, brain activity, and scoring was all higher. It was as if their brains received a workout, and then AI was used to help them fine-tune and expedite things.
What Does This All Mean?
AI certainly provides an advantage, but it does serve as a double-edged sword. A failure to use it responsibly can make things easier and quicker, but, ultimately, it can lead to a disengagement that diminishes critical thinking and long-term retention.
The conclusion? AI should be used responsibly. It should help with your creativity and research, but your brainpower should not be as a replacement. Consider it a collaborator, not a wheelchair.
A Word of Caution
The investigation has not yet gone through peer review, so it remains in the early stages. It analyzed a small sample that was focused exclusively on essay writing, meaning that it is subject to a lot of further research. This is a clear invitation, though, to consider carefully how AI can be woven into educational and professional settings.
Final Thoughts
It is important to understand the impact that AI technology has with respect to neuroscience as developments with AI continue to grow at an exponential rate. AI can be beneficial to us as it can be used in an intentional manner as long as we do not neglect the human aspects of curiosity, creativity, and rigorous cognition.
