Will AI And ChatGPT Make Us Stupid?

Using ChatGPT      Credit:medium.com

Introduction

Scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have found some startling results in the brain scans of ChatGPT users, adding to the growing body of evidence suggesting that AI is having a serious and barely-understood impact on its users’ cognition even as it explodes in popularity worldwide. Nevertheless, while AI’s impact on overall intelligence is challenging, to quantify concerns relative to cognitive offloading and diminishing specific cognitive skills are valid and measurable, as shown by the MIT study. A study published in January 2025 by another research group with further individuals observed  comes to the same conclusion.

What the Study Says

In a new paper currently awaiting peer review, researchers from MIT’s Media Lab documented the vast differences between the brain activity of people who use ChatGPT to write versus those who did not. The research team recruited 54 adults between the ages of 18 and 39 and divided them into three groups: one that used ChatGPT to help them write essays, one that used Google search as their main writing aid, and one that didn’t use AI tech. The study took place over four months, with each group tasked with writing one essay per month for the first three, while a smaller subset of the cohort either switched from not using ChatGPT to using it or vice versa  in the fourth month. As they completed the essay tasks, the participants were hooked up to electroencephalogram (EEG) machines which recorded their brain activity with amazing results. The ChatGPT group not only consistently underperformed at neural, linguistic, and behavioural levels, but also became lazier with each essay they wrote as the EEGs found weaker neural connectivity and under-engagement of alpha and beta networks. The Google-assisted group, meanwhile, had moderate neural engagement, while the brain-only group exhibited the strongest cognitive metrics throughout. These findings about brain activity, while novel, aren’t entirely surprising after prior studies and anecdotes concerning the many ways that AI chatbot use seems to be affecting people’s brains and minds. Previous MIT research found that ChatGPT ‘power users’ were becoming dependent on the chatbot and experiencing indicators of addiction and withdrawal symptoms when they were cut off. And earlier this year Carnegie Mellon and Microsoft – which has invested billions of dollars to finance OpenAI’s development of ChatGPT –  found in a joint study that heavy chatbot use appears to almost atrophy critical thinking skills. A few months later, The Guardian found in an analysis of studies like that one performed by MIT, that researchers are growing increasingly concerned that technology like ChatGPT is making us more stupid, and a Wall Street Journal reporter even owned up to his cognitive skill loss from over-using chatbots. Beyond the neurological impacts, there are also many reasons to be concerned about how ChatGPT and other chatbots like it affect our mental health. As Futurism found in a recent investigation, many users are becoming obsessed with ChatGPT and developing paranoid delusions into which the chatbot is pushing them deeper. Some have even stopped taking their psychiatric medication because the chatbot told them to. 

Is ChatGPT Making Us Stupid?

In an article published by Forbes on June 20, 2025, Robert B. Tucker discusses the impact AI and ChatGPT have when used in our daily computer sessions. In boardrooms and classrooms, the same question keeps coming up: Is ChatGPT making us smarter, or is it making us intellectually lazy, maybe even stupid? There’s no question that generative artificial intelligence is a game-changer. ChatGPT drafts our emails, answers our questions, and completes our sentences. For students, it’s become the new CliffsNotes. For professionals, a brainstorming device. For coders, a potential job killer. In record time, it has become a productivity enhancer for almost everything. But what is it doing to our brains? The MIT researchers introduced the concept of ‘cognitive debt’, the subtle but accumulating cost to our mental faculties when we outsource too much of our thinking to AI. “Just as relying on a GPS dulls our sense of direction, relying on AI to write and reason can dull our ability to do those very things ourselves,” notes the MIT report. “That’s a debt that compounds over time.”

The second study, published in the peer-reviewed Swiss journal Societies, published in January 2025, is titled “AI Tools in Society: Impacts on Cognitive Offloading and the Future of Critical Thinking.” It broadens the lens from a lab experiment to everyday life. Researchers surveyed 666 individuals from various age and educational backgrounds to explore how often people rely on AI tools—and how that reliance affects their ability to think critically. The findings revealed a strong negative correlation between frequent AI use and critical thinking performance. Those who often turned to AI for tasks like writing, researching, or decision-making exhibited lower ‘metacognitive, awareness and analytical reasoning. This was not limited to any one demographic, but younger users and those with lower educational attainment were particularly affected. What’s more, the study confirmed that over-reliance on AI encourages ‘cognitive offloading’, our tendency to let external tools do the work our brains used to do. While AI relates to intelligence, cognitive offloading is not a new concept. Introducing ChatGPT, however, introduces a new level of reasoning and decision making. When your assistant can think for you, you may stop thinking altogether, the report notes. But just as the printing press didn’t eliminate the need to learn to read, ChatGPT does not absolve us of the responsibility to think. And that is the danger today, that individuals will stop doing their own thinking because the computer is so easy to work with.

Suggestions and Future Outlook

These studies are preliminary, and further research is needed. However, there is sufficient evidence to suggest that heavy use of AI is not only a game changer, but an alarming threat to humanity’s ability to solve problems, communicate with one another, and perhaps to prosper by integrating metacognitive strategies and thinking about thinking into education, workplace training, and even product design. In other words, do not just use AI but engage with it. The line we must straddle is between augmentation and abdication. Are we using AI to elevate our thinking? Or are we turning over the keys to robots?

Here are four ideas for using this new technology, while keeping our cognitive edge sharp:

• Do your own thinking first. Before you consult a chatbot, wrestle with the problem yourself. Draft your idea. Think through the structure. Then allow ChatGPT to weigh in and help you refine your ideas.
• Turn off autopilot. If you find yourself reflexively turning to AI for answers you could generate on your own, that’s a sign. Interrupt the cycle. Push through the discomfort of not knowing because this is the moment when learning happens.
• Reclaim friction. Our brains are wired for efficiency, but growth often requires friction. A blank page, a difficult question, a difficult concept. Do not rush to eliminate those obstacles, they are part of the process.
• Step back regularly. Ask yourself: Why am I using this tool? What did I learn? What could I do differently next time? This habit alone can transform passive use into intentional engagement.

The danger is not that ChatGPT will replace us. But it can make us stupid, if we let it replace our thinking instead of enriching it. The difference lies in how we use it, and more importantly, how aware we are while using it. The danger is that we will stop developing the parts of ourselves that matter most because it’s faster and easier to let the machine do it. Let us not allow that to happen.

Conclusion

We can only enter into a constructive relationship with AI by understanding AI as a technology. Unless we do this, we will be manipulated by AI without being aware of it. Investigating whether the use of recommendation algorithms, virtual assistants, or intelligent tutoring systems has varying impacts on critical thinking and cognitive offloading, can provide nuanced insights. Through understanding and addressing these challenges, we can better harness the power of AI to support rather than supplant human intellect. According to the ideas and facts presented, evidence is growing that AI is having profound and alarming effects on many users but so far, we are seeing no evidence that corporations producing this technology are slowing down their attempts of injecting it into every segment of our society.