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A study conducted by the prestigious Technological Institute in Massachusetts (MIT) with research devices that measure the electrical activity of the brain shows that those using Chatgpt to write essays will suffer in terms of critical thinking.
Critical thinking is the ability to analyze, evaluate and understand information clearly, logically and rationally, to make well -argued decisions and not accept “unmixed” ideas. Basically, “Critical Thinking” means thinking about your head, not believing whatever you hear or read.
A team of neurologists and specialists in artificial intelligence from Mit Media Lab conducted a study on the effects of using large linguistic models (LLM) on the brain, among people who use them for educational or professional purposes, writes phys.org.
The conclusion is that intense use can lead to weakening of critical thinking skills. In the study published on Arxiv, the researchers asked some volunteers to write essays, while they were monitored by EEG (research devices that measure the electrical activity of the brain).
Some of them were asked to write an essay in 20 minutes with the help of Chatgpt, others were asked to use Google searches, while another group used only by the brain, without any other online tool.
The interviews showed that those who used Chatgpt felt a lower degree of “property” on the written essays. They also had difficulty remembering or quoting fragments of essays, even shortly after writing. On all levels-brain activity, linguistic analysis and essay evaluation-the participants who relied on Chatgpt have achieved weaker results than those who wrote without the help of a Chatbot AI.
In the last two years, the use of ChatGPT LLM models has become commonplace. Some use them for fun, and others, to perform their tasks at school or work
The conclusion of the researchers is that although ChatGpt style LLMs can bring fast benefits, frequent use in writing tasks can reduce the quality of learning over time and can prevent the development of critical thinking.
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