A new MIT study finds that over-reliance on artificial intelligence can reduce brain activity and critical cognitive functions. Nataliya Kosmyna, lead author of the study, joins CBS News to break down the findings.

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Researchers at MIT conducted a study with over 50 college students to examine the impact of AI tools on brain activity during essay writing. Participants were divided into groups: one used only their own knowledge, another used Google, and a third used ChatGPT. The study found that those who relied on ChatGPT showed lower brain engagement and less neural connectivity compared to those who wrote without technological assistance.

The findings also revealed that essays produced with ChatGPT were more homogenous and students felt less ownership over their work. The study suggests that the timing and manner of introducing AI tools in educational settings can influence cognitive engagement and creativity. Researchers emphasize the importance of maintaining critical thinking and creativity, even as AI becomes more integrated into daily tasks.

Using AI tools for writing can reduce brain activity, study finds

While many of us find artificial intelligence helpful for completing those everyday tasks, a new study finds that over-reliance on the technology can actually reduce brain activity and critical cognitive functions. The researchers at MIT split a group of more than 50 college students into three groups to write essays. The first group was told to rely only on their own knowledge. The second was given access to Google's search engine, and the third was allowed to use OpenAI's ChatGBT. A second round only included the non-tech and ChatGBT groups, but switch two was placed in each one. So why that's important is because researchers found that upon that switch, the original ChatGBT group showed the lowest amount of brain engagement. To talk about what all this means, Natalia Kosmina joins us now. She's the lead author of that study. She's also a research scientist at MIT Media Lab's Fluid Interfaces group. Thank you so much for joining us, Natalia. How, can you break down this study and what did you find in these results? Was it surprising to you? So yeah, great being here with you. So not really surprising because we actually expected that there will be difference in brain activity, right? When you use something with a tool versus when you don't use any tools, right? The idea of the study was actually to see what exactly happens in the brain, right? So we measured this neural connectivity. It's like as if I were in the studio right now with you, not connecting to you over Zoom, but together with you in person and with your producer, I would turn to you, tell you something, you would tell something your producer, your producer will tell you something and you will tell something back to me. So that's what we are measuring, right? Who is talking to who in the brain and how much talking is happening? Is it just hi, or it's a lot of conversation, right? And of course, if you only use your brain, there will be a lot of chatting happening, right? Because you need to remember things and from your experiences. But when you use, you know, LLM in that case, or chat GPT, there was much less of this chatter happening, so to say. But indeed, when the switch happened, what you described, that was very interesting, right? So the group that originally was brain only, then received access to the chat GPT, they did better neural connectivity wise. And that means potentially that the timing when you introduce the tools can be extremely important. It is really interesting to hear about all this. Why do you think these findings are important? And what do you hope that parents and policy makers, especially for education, that they take away from your study? So, you know, we have already iPad generation, we have social media generation. AI is not going to be better unless we intentionally make it better. One finding I want to highlight is obviously the impaired ownership of the essays. The chat GPT group didn't feel in some cases that the essays were of their own, which is not surprising, they didn't really write them. And also the quoting ability, right? They couldn't really quote what they wrote. Again, they didn't really write them. But more important, chat GPT essays were very homogenous, meaning that they used very same language. And I think this is very important. So it's not just about we measure the brain activity, but it's also, you know, where is this content is coming from, right? Do we want to end up with average, everything, everywhere, all at once? You know, that is the question, because that's what we ended up seeing in the chat GPT group. Yeah, it's important to stay creative and be able to use our own critical thinking, even in the midst of all this. Natalia Kozmina, thank you very much for joining us today. Thank you for having me.

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Using AI tools for writing can reduce brain activity, study finds

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