If AI is doing your thinking for you, whether it’s through auto-complete or whether it’s in some more sophisticated ways, as in “I’d let AI write the first draft, and then I’ll just edit it,” that is undercutting your critical thinking and your creativity. You may end up using AI to write a job application letter that is the same as everybody else’s because they’re also using AI, and you may lose the job as a result. You always have to remember that the owl sits on your shoulder and not the other way around.

If a student uses AI to do the work for them, rather than to do the work with them, there’s not going to be much learning. No learning occurs unless the brain is actively engaged in making meaning and sense of what you’re trying to learn, and this is not going to occur if you just ask ChatGPT, “Give me the answer to the question that the instructor is asking.”

critical distinctions

Many students use AI without a good understanding of how it works in a computational/Bayesian sense, and this leads to putting too much confidence in its output.

dulling

A recent MIT Media Lab study reported that “excessive reliance on AI-driven solutions” may contribute” to “cognitive atrophy” and shrinking of critical thinking abilities. The study is small and is not peer-reviewed, and yet it delivers a warning that even artificial intelligence assistants are willing to acknowledge. When we asked ChatGPT whether AI can make us dumber or smarter, it answered, “It depends on how we engage with it: as a crutch or a tool for growth.”

A recent MIT Media Lab study reported that “excessive reliance on AI-driven solutions” may contribute” to “cognitive atrophy” and shrinking of critical thinking abilities. The study is small and is not peer-reviewed, and yet it delivers a warning that even artificial intelligence assistants are willing to acknowledge. When we asked ChatGPT whether AI can make us dumber or smarter, it answered, “It depends on how we engage with it: as a crutch or a tool for growth.”