AI is the elevator; thinking is taking the stairs

Around 2020, Professor David Raffo noticed a swift and drastic improvement in his students’ writing skills at Portland State University. He quickly realized his hunch was accurate: They were using AI. The tool had improved their writing, but crucially, it hadn’t improved their writing skills.

In her story “Is AI Making Us Dumb?,” UX designer and researcher Arshitha S Ashok draws on this anecdote to highlight the phenomenon of “cognitive offloading” that’s been caused by the proliferation of AI tools. By using ChatGPT and other LLMs in our daily lives, she writes, we’re not just outsourcing our critical thinking and decision-making skills; we’re outsourcing our curiosity, too.

Ashok cites a number of studies that have begun to investigate how these tools affect our brains. One study points to the way AI causes “mental atrophy,” which is defined as “the gradual weakening of our mental faculties due to over-reliance on external tools.” One Alzheimer’s researcher “emphasized the importance of mental activity to prevent cognitive decline.” In other words, overreliance on these tools can make our minds less resilient against diseases like Alzheimer’s.

Solving this problem isn’t as easy as pointing to a bunch of persuasive studies, however. As Ashok writes, “resisting the ease AI offers takes extraordinary discipline.”

As a college physics professor, Rhett Allain sees the issue up close, and frames it as a question of AI vs. effort. Allain compares AI to an elevator, and cognitive problem-solving (like solving a physics problem by hand) to a stairmaster machine. The elevator will get you to your destination faster, but the stairmaster will make your mind stronger and more agile.

When solving the problem yourself, Allain writes, “You MIGHT get the wrong answer. You might make a mistake. You might even get confused with this solution. Don’t worry — that’s all part of the learning process. It’s all about the sweat and confusion. The answer doesn’t even really matter.” 

Source: Marian Bull

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