Is There a Fee on Thinking With AI?

And How to Take Control

Hey there👋

We all feel it, don't we? Amidst the buzz of productivity hacks and automation dreams, a deeper, more profound question is starting to surface: Is ChatGPT, and AI like it, fundamentally altering how we think? Are we unknowingly trading our mental edge for convenience?

In today’s deep dive, we’re going straight to the core of how AI might be subtly rewiring our brains, examining whether its convenience comes at the expense of our critical thinking, memory, and even introduces new biases, and what that truly implies for our future.

---

---

The Hidden Price Tag of Effortless Efficiency

Seriously, who hasn’t felt that little thrill of relief when ChatGPT crafts a perfect email, summarizes a dense report, or even kicks off a brainstorming session when your mind’s drawing a blank? It’s like having a super-efficient assistant on tap, 24/7. But here’s the thing we need to talk about: this incredible ease might be coming at a cost we haven’t fully grasped yet.

Think of it like this: remember when calculators became commonplace? Suddenly, complex arithmetic wasn’t this daunting mental exercise anymore. That’s cognitive offloading in action – handing over the mental heavy lifting to a tool. Now, AI is taking this to a whole new level, handling synthesis, analysis, and even those initial sparks of original thought. Some researchers describe this as an “automated, scaffolded cognitive mode” of the human mind where ChatGPT is essentially becoming the go-to tool people lean on when they're juggling real-life demands.

And science is starting to back this up. Recent studies from MIT’s Media Lab dove deep into this very question by assigning participants to three groups: one using only their “brain power,” another using ChatGPT, and a third using Google Search – and using EEG monitors to track their brain activity. The task? Writing essays on topics like loyalty or art, with participants having 20 minutes to complete them.

The results were pretty eye-opening: individuals relying on ChatGPT showed noticeably lower brain activity across various regions compared to those tackling the same tasks solo or even with good old-fashioned search engines. Their brains were, plain and simple, in lower gear.

What is more, when asked to quote from the essays they had worked on during previous sessions, those in the “brain only” group showed significantly greater retention and claimed higher ownership of their work. This directly suggests a deeper level of processing and integration for those who engaged their minds more fully.

Your Brain: Use It or Lose It (Literally)

This finding aligns perfectly with a fundamental principle of neuroscience that we all instinctively understand: just as a muscle, if you don't use your brain, you lose its sharpness. Participants in the “brain only” group were notably more engaged, curious, and expressed higher satisfaction with their essays – a stark contrast to the “automated cognitive mode” some adopt with AI.

Let’s take a student who used ChatGPT for their essay. Sure, the essay got written. But what about the mental wrestling match with the topic, the painstaking process of structuring their thoughts, the thrill of formulating their unique arguments? That got skipped. And even though AI is gradually getting implemented into learning by many, the MIT study directly confirmed this cognitive shortcut: the information hadn’t been truly processed, hadn’t been etched into their memory through genuine effort. It wasn’t theirs. This highlights a crucial point for education: while AI is increasingly integrated, if students are merely copying and pasting, they risk becoming unthinking imitators, potentially limiting their vocabulary and expressions.

This isn’t just a classroom thing, it’s a brain thing. When we hand over too much to AI, we’re skipping out on the mental heavy lifting that keeps our minds sharp. Ironically, the study also found that within the LLM group, participants who had previously relied on AI scored higher by human teachers than those who had used only their brains in prior sessions. This suggests that for a non-professional writer, AI might deliver short-term gains (higher grades) at the expense of long-term cognitive deterioration. As one commentary noted, “compilation is easier than creation.” But what happens if we stick to compiling?

---

---

The AI Mirror: Reflecting Our Own Limitations