OpenAI’s ChatGPT may be limiting users’ ability to think critically, according to a recent Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Study.
This was a cause of concern for researchers at MIT’s Media Lab, according to a report by Time. The study divided 54 subjects—18 to 39 year-olds from the Boston area—into three groups and asked them to write several SAT essays using ChatGPT, Google’s search engine, and nothing at all.
The researchers used an EEG to record the writers’ brain activity across 32 regions, and found that of the three groups, ChatGPT users had the lowest brain engagement and ‘consistently underperformed at neural, linguistic, and behavioural levels.’
Nataliya Kosmyna, a research scientist at the MIT Media Lab, wanted to specifically explore the impacts of using AI for schoolwork, because more and more students are using AI.
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She noted that she and her colleagues instructed subjects to write 20-minute essays based on SAT prompts, including about the ethics of philanthropy and the pitfalls of having too many choices.
The group that wrote essays using ChatGPT all delivered extremely similar essays that lacked original thought, relying on the same expressions and ideas.
Two English teachers who assessed the essays called them largely ‘soulless.’ The EEGs revealed low executive control and attentional engagement. And by their third essay, many of the writers simply gave the prompt to ChatGPT and had it do almost all the work.
“It was more like, ‘just give me the essay, refine this sentence, edit it, and I’m done,’” Kosmyna said.
For several months, ChatGPT users got lazier with each subsequent essay, often resorting to copy-and-paste by the end of the study.
The paper suggests that the usage of LLMs could harm learning, especially for younger users. The paper has not yet been peer reviewed, and its sample size is relatively small.
The MIT Media Lab has recently devoted significant resources to studying different impacts of generative AI tools. Studies from earlier this year, for example, found that generally, the more time users spend talking to ChatGPT, the lonelier they feel.
The brain-only group, conversely, showed the highest neural connectivity, especially in alpha, theta and delta bands, which are associated with creativity ideation, memory load, and semantic processing.
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The researchers found this group was more engaged and curious, and claimed ownership and expressed higher satisfaction with their essays.
The third group, which used Google Search, also expressed high satisfaction and active brain function. After writing the three essays, the subjects were then asked to rewrite one of their previous efforts, but the ChatGPT group had to do so without the tool, while the brain-only group could now use ChatGPT, according to the researchers.
The first group remembered little of their essays and showed weaker alpha and theta brain waves, which likely reflected a bypassing of deep memory processes.
The second group, in contrast, performed well, exhibiting a significant increase in brain connectivity across all EEG frequency bands, which gives rise to the hope that AI, if used properly, could enhance learning as opposed to diminishing it.
