Scientifically Speaking: Does ChatGPT really make us stupid?

We’re still in the early days of understanding AI’s effects on thinking. Some say it’ll make us geniuses, others fear brain mush — but the verdict’s far from in

A few months after I took apart articles that mischaracterised a study of AI tools as causing people to lose critical thinking skills in a column for HT, viral headlines are at it again.

Large language models like ChatGPT and Claude are now pervasive. But even a few years into their use, a lot of the talk about them remains black and white (Representative photo)PREMIUM
Large language models like ChatGPT and Claude are now pervasive. But even a few years into their use, a lot of the talk about them remains black and white (Representative photo)

A number of headlines have been screaming that using artificial intelligence (AI) rots our brains. Some said it outright, others preferred the more polite “cognitive decline”, but they meant almost the same thing. Add this to the growing list of things AI is blamed for: making us lazy, dumber, and incapable of independent thought.

Large language models like ChatGPT and Claude are now pervasive. But even a few years into their use, a lot of the talk about them remains black and white. In one camp, the techno-optimists tell us that AI super intelligence, which can do everything better than all of us, is just around the corner. In the other, there’s a group that blames just about everything that goes wrong anywhere on AI. If only the truth were that simple.

Source: Hindustantimes