A new study from researchers at Carnegie Mellon, MIT, Oxford, and UCLA suggests that using an AI chatbot for just 10 minutes could negatively impact your ability to think and problem-solve. And honestly, the findings are a little alarming.
As reported by Wired, the researchers asked participants to solve problems, including simple fractions and reading comprehension tasks. Some participants were given access to an AI assistant that could solve the problem for them.
When the AI was suddenly removed, those participants were far more likely to give up or get the answer wrong. In other words, the moment the AI crutch was gone, people struggled.
Should we be worried about what AI is doing to our brains?
Michiel Bakker, an assistant professor at MIT who worked on the study, is careful not to sound like a doomsayer. “The takeaway is not that we should ban AI in education or workplaces,” he says. “AI can clearly help people perform better in the moment, and that can be valuable. But we should be more careful about what kind of help AI provides, and when.”
What makes this particularly concerning is that persistence, which is your willingness to keep trying when things get hard, is a key part of how humans learn and develop new skills over time. AI, it seems, is quietly chipping away at that.
So what’s the fix?
Bakker believes AI tools need to be redesigned to work like a good teacher. Instead of just handing the answer, they should coach users through the problem. “Systems that give direct answers may have very different long-term effects from systems that scaffold, coach, or challenge the user,” he says.
It’s a tricky balance, and AI companies are already grappling with related issues. For now, it might be worth asking yourself: is your AI assistant helping you grow, or just doing your thinking for you?