The study conducted by MIT MEDIA LAB covered 54 participants who wrote essays in four turns. Some of them used chatgpt, others from a traditional Google search engine, and the others created texts themselves. Scientists monitored their brain activity with EEG, and the ready texts were assessed by both teachers and algorithms.
The result was unambiguous: Those who relied on AI showed the lowest cerebral activity, weaker memory and limited creativity. Their essays were schematic and devoid of original thoughts. It is a gradual weakening of the mind by excessive convenience, experts call “cognitive debt”.
What is cognitive debt and how to defend against it?
Dr hab. Aleksandra Przegalińska, a philosopher and researcher of new technologies, admits that the results of myth research should worry us, but it is not worth to panic. – If we use AI without reflection, it can have negative effects on our cognitive abilities. So the key is the word: without reflection – he emphasizes.
– When we allow technology to replace our own thought processes – analysis, critical thinking, combining facts – we begin to retract. This is not AI's fault, but our bad habits. We must shape good habits from an early age – he adds.
Dr. Ada Florentyna Pawlak, a technology anthropologist, specializing in the area of social implications of artificial intelligence and transhumanism, reminds that effort and failure are crucial for cognitive development. Referring to Daniel Kahneman and his “thinking traps”, he explains that easy access to answers creates an illusion of deep understanding, reduces the cognitive need and leads to overestimating your own decision -making competences.
– AI minimizes frustration and search time, which reduces our mental resistance to difficult tasks. This ends with a decrease in motivation to explore and avoiding yourself problems.
How to use a generative AI wisely?
Aleksandra Przegalińska emphasizes that generative AI is a great tool, but it must remain a tool, not a substitute for thinking. He advises you to solve the problem first, and then compare your solution with the AI proposal. Another good practice is treating artificial intelligence as a partner for a discussion that provokes new questions instead of providing ready answers.
Dr hab. Artur Modliński, head of the Center for Research on Artificial Intelligence and Cybercommunication at the Faculty of Management of the University of Lodz, suggests changing the approach: instead of asking AI to generate texts, we should use it as a solid critic. – It is better to think first how we would solve the problem and then use AI to show the good and bad sides of this solution – explains the expert.
He adds that the greatest temptation to use AI appears when we do something that we don't like. That is why it is so important to look for what we specialize in and what is passionate about us.
The role of companies and education
Aleksandra Przegalińska emphasizes that it is not enough to implement AI and encourage employees to use it. You also need to teach them how to use it wisely and critically. Companies should invest in “AI writings”, understood not as “tool service”, but as an understanding of AI, its limitations and impact on the way of working.
Equally important is the space for uncomatased thinking: offline time, creative meetings, interdisciplinary teams that use not only data, but also on values and context.
Ada Florentyna Pawlak pays attention to the problem attention deficitwhich became a civilization disease. Organizations should create conditions for focusing. – We must learn to use deep attention again to maintain motivation and be able to fully develop social bonds – he emphasizes. He also warns against “artificial empathy” generated by AI, which can lead to technology addiction and weaken relationships in the organization.
Artur Modliński draws attention to the paradox that the organizations face: – Theoretically AI is to accelerate work, but we are still working more than before. This pace of work becomes unbearable – he notes. Quality suffers from quantity, which is a system problem that requires systemic solutions.
He is also worried about the relationship: – What happens when the system stops working, for example during a power failure? How will we deal with logical inference and thinking? – he asks rhetorically.
Mind training: How to care for cognitive abilities?
Dr. Ada Florentyna Pawlak from SWPS compares this to physical training. – Let's train your mind as we train your body. Let's challenge him – he advises. – Just as a proper diet and movement changes our well -being, such regular cognitive training will improve our cognitive abilities.
– You have to read difficult things, learn new languages, conduct deepened conversations, solve problems without AI – these are all forms of mental training – develops Aleksandra Przegalińska.
Changes in education are particularly important. Ada Florentyna Pawlak emphasizes that today it is crucial to acquire knowledge and cooperation between people, and not only with algorithms. In class with SWPS students, instead of written work, he focuses on the exchange of thoughts in real time, teaching cooperation in a group, critical assessment of work with algorithms and training public speeches.
– Education cannot be limited to machine operation. Education should support the sense of meaning in community, strengthen what we care as sensitive people, not just members of algorithmic culture, “he concludes.
At the end, Aleksandra Przegalińska reminds you to consciously “be inefficient”: – It is sometimes worth deliberately giving yourself the right to think slower, not optimal, unproductive – because that's when the best ideas often come.
