Overusing AI Chatbots May Harm Brain Function

ChatGPT: According to a recent study, people’s brain function may be compromised if they begin depending more on chatbots with artificial intelligence, such as ChatGPT, for jobs like writing essays.

ChatGPT: According to a recent study, people’s brain efficiency may suffer if they begin depending more on chatbots with artificial intelligence, such as ChatGPT, for jobs like writing essays. Writing essays with the aid of large language models (LLMs) impairs people’s memory, sense of self-authority, and brain connectivity, according to a study done in the Media Lab at the renowned Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in America.

The study found

The academic platform arXiv has published the work “Your Brain on ChatGPT: Accumulation of Cognitive Debt when Using an AI Assistant for Essay Writing Tasks.” It has sparked worries that a sustained reliance on AI may impair human capacity for learning. Over time, linguistic, cognitive, and behavioral performance declined in those who utilized AI more.

The research procedure

Participants in this study were split up into three groups.

• Users of LLM
• Users of search engines
• Brain-only (without the use of a computer)

For three sessions, each participant produced an essay under the same circumstances. Users of LLM were requested to produce essays without the help of artificial intelligence (AI) during the fourth session, which was a change. Eighteen persons finished the fourth session, while 54 people took part in the previous three.

During this period, the researchers used electroencephalography (EEG) to record the participants’ brain activity and natural language processing (NLP) and human professors to examine their written essays.

Warnings and repercussions

The study discovered that the brain networks of the brain-only group were the largest and most robust. The brain connectivity of LLM users was the poorest, but the brains of search engine users were relatively active. In other words, there was a noticeable drop in mental activity among individuals who used external technology tools more.

When LLM users were forced to write without AI during the fourth session, it was discovered that their brains’ alpha and beta wave connection had decreased, suggesting that they were no longer as mentally engaged. However, people who used LLM for the first time showed more activity in several areas of their brains and had superior memory.

Furthermore, LLM users had trouble properly citing their own ideas and had less affection for their own works. This implies that although AI can offer short-term respite, it might have long-term consequences for cognitive capacities.

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