Among all the debates about how AI affects jobs, science, environment and everything, a question is how large models of language affect people using directly.
A New study The MIT media lab shows that the use of AI tools reduces brain activity in some ways, which is understandable. But I think it’s just a part of the story. Like any other piece of technology, how we use AI, that’s what is really important.
Researchers here to test the effect of AI on the brain: they asked 54 students to write articles using one of three ways: their own brain, search engine, or AI assistant, especially Chat GPT.
More than three sessions, students were stuck with their assigned tools. Then they replaced AI users with toll -free, and non -tools employing AI.
EEG headsets measured their brain activity, and a group of humans, in addition to a specially trained AI, scored articles as a result. Researchers also interviewed each student about their experience.
As you expected, the group that depends on their brain showed the most engagement, excellent memory and the most sense of ownership, as is proof of how much they can refer to them.
In the past, AI users had less impressive memories and mental contacts, and often after a few minutes they could not even cite their articles. When writing manually in the last test, they still perform less.
The authors are cautious to indicate that this study has not yet been reviewed. It was limited in scope, focused on writing the article, no other academic activity. And EEG, despite being interesting, is better to measure overall trends rather than identify the exact brain functions. Despite all these warnings, most people who take away the message are that the use of AI can deepen you.
But I would consider that if the AI ​​is not giving us down so much to allow us to remove them from thinking. Perhaps the problem is not a toll, but how we are using it.
AI brain
If you use AI, think about how you used it. Have you got this letter to write, or may some ideas be put into mind? Did it change your thinking, or support it? There is a lot of difference in using AI to help outsource an article and manage a dirt idea.
Part of this problem is that as we refer to it, it is not literally intelligent, there is only a very sophisticated parrot that has a great library in memory. But this study did not ask the participants to consider this distinction.
The group using LLM was encouraged to use AI because they saw the fit, which probably did not mean the thought and proper use, copying without reading, and that’s why context is important.
Because AI’s “academic cost” can be less than its presence and more than its purpose. If I use AI to rewrite a boiler plate email, I’m not diminishing my intelligence. Instead, I am freeing bandouts for things that I really need my thinking and creativity, such as coming with this idea for an article or planning my weekend.
Certainly, if I use II to produce ideas, I ever bother to understand or engage it, so my brain may take a blink, but if I use it to smoothly, I have more mental strength when it is important.
Think about it like this. As I was growing up, I had phone numbers, leaves, birthday and other details of my friends and family. I wrote most of it somewhere, but I hardly needed to consult him. I was closest to them. But I have not memorized a large number in almost a decade.
I don’t even know my own landline number. Is this a sign that I am getting deep, or is it just proof that I have taken a cell phone for a long time and left them need to remember?
We have offloaded some kind of memory on our devices, which allows us to focus on a variety of thinking. The skill is not memorizing, knowing how to find, filter and apply information when we need it. It is sometimes called “extras”, but it really is just a mere applied mental power where it is needed.
This does not mean that memory does not matter anymore. But the force has changed. Just as we do not follow the long distribution of students after understanding the concept of students once, we can one day decide how it is more important to know what a good form letter looks like and how it should be pointed out to anyone instead of drafting this line through the line.
Humans are always a new appreciation of intelligence. There are many ways to be careful, and knowing how to use tools and technology is an important step in smart. At one point, being smart means knowing how to deal with the chakk, Latin fall or work on the slide roll.
Today, this may mean that they should be allowed to think for you without being able to cooperate with machines. Different tools prefer different academic skills. And whenever a new device comes, some people are nervous that it will destroy us or take us.
The printing press calculator Internet was accused of making people lazy thinkers. A great honor of all civilization came out (okay, the jury is still out on the Internet).
With AI in the mixture, we are probably bent more hard in synthesis, understanding and emotional intelligence – the human part of being human. We do not need the symbols that are just good to people. We need people who know how to ask better questions.
Knowing when a model is to be trusted and when to double check. This means that changing a device that has the ability to do the job in an asset that helps you to improve.
But none of this works if you treat AI like a vending machine for intelligence. Wait for a cartoon, talent in a gesture? No, it’s not how it works. And if you do everything with it, you are not getting deep, you have never learned how to keep in touch with your thoughts.
In the study, the lower article of the LLM group was not just about memory. It was about engagement. They did not feel their written written because they were not writing. It’s not about AI. It’s about using a tool to leave the difficult part, which means to quit learning.
However, study is important. It reminds us that tools form thinking. If we are using AI tools to expand our brain or avoid using them, it leans us. But claiming that the use of AI makes people less intelligent, as calculators have made us bad in mathematics. If we want to keep our brain fast, the answer may not be to avoid AI but it will be thought of using it.
The future is not the human brain compared to AI. It is about humans who know thinking with AI and any other tool, and refrain from becoming someone who does not bother to think. And this is a test I still want to pass.