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The number of people using AI chatbots like ChatGPT – which rely on large language models (LLMs) to generate human-like responses as well as information, images, chunks of prose and more – has risen exponentially in the last few years.
In fact, hundreds of millions of people use ChatGPT alone every day, suggesting that this Artificial Intelligence tool, and others like it, are beginning to shape the way in which we navigate our everyday lives.
This is not always a bad thing, with plenty of positives for businesses and individuals alike – but the truth remains that the long-term effects on our minds and bodies of reliance on this AI tool, and others like it, remains untested.
And alarming results from a study conducted by researchers at MIT show just how damaging these effects really can be.
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The recent paper recruited 54 adults for their study. Aged between 18 and 39 and tasked with writing essays over three months, the individuals were sorted into three different groups: Group 1 used ChatGPT in the writing of essays; Group 2 looked to Google searches for assistance; Group 3 did not use any AI while writing their essays.
Later, a few members of each group would continue the study for a fourth month, in which those who used ChatGPT wouldn’t use any AI for a fourth and final essay, while those who didn’t use any AI would have ChatGPT assist their essay writing, as the researchers explain in their paper:
“We assigned participants to three groups: LLM group, Search Engine group, Brain-only group, where each participant used a designated tool (or no tool in the latter) to write an essay. We conducted three sessions with the same group assignment for each participant. In the 4th session we asked LLM group participants to use no tools (we refer to them as LLM-to-Brain), and the Brain-only group participants were asked to use LLM (Brain-to-LLM). We recruited a total of 54 participants for Sessions 1, 2, 3, and 18 participants among them completed session 4.”
During the writing of the essays, researchers conducted brain scans on the participants using EEG machines; after the conclusion of the tasks, these EEGs were used to compare not only the differences in brain activity between individuals and the three core groups, but how each individual’s brain activity changed between each month’s essay task too.
The results of the EEG comparisons? Well they were striking, to say the least.
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Unsurprisingly, the group that did not use any AI tools in their essay writing showed the strongest brain activity, as well as the highest levels of individuality and ‘ownership’ of their writing, also meaning that they were able to recall what they’d written when quizzed about it later.
The ChatGPT group, on the other hand, showed alarmingly low neural, linguistic, and behavioral levels in the EEGs, with their brain activity decreasing with each AI-assisted essay they wrote. And as the researchers continue to explain in their paper, the group that used a search engine to assist sat in the middle of the two extremes:
“EEG analysis presented robust evidence that LLM, Search Engine and Brain-only groups had significantly different neural connectivity patterns, reflecting divergent cognitive strategies. Brain connectivity systematically scaled down with the amount of external support: the Brain‑only group exhibited the strongest, widest‑ranging networks, Search Engine group showed intermediate engagement, and LLM assistance elicited the weakest overall coupling.”
What does that mean for the general populace, perhaps those who aren’t writing essays every month? Well, it’s not exactly that AI tools like ChatGPT make you stupider, but the brain thrives from being used, and if you are using tools to do all your problem solving, come up with ideas for you, follow up on anything that makes you curious, and overall restrict your need to think for yourself?
Your brain is going to feel the effects of that.