Is AI Negatively Impacting Your Critical Thinking Skills? New Study Say Yes
By Movieguide® Contributor
AI might be making certain tasks easier, but that can come at a high price for your critical thinking skills.
In a study conducted by Carnegie Mellon and Microsoft, researchers found that people who regularly use AI for basic tasks will lose their ability for complex critical thinking.
“Used improperly, technologies can and do result in the deterioration of cognitive faculties that ought to be preserved,” the researchers wrote. “A key irony of automation is that by mechanising routine tasks and leaving exception-handling to the human user, you deprive the user of the routine opportunities to practice their judgement and strengthen their cognitive musculature, leaving them atrophied and unprepared when the exceptions do arise.”
Per Futurism, the study spoke to 319 “knowledge workers,” referring to people whose job responsibilities involve solving problems. They asked people to share “three real-life examples” of when they use AI at work and how much critical thinking they did when accomplishing those tasks.
READ MORE: PROPOSED LAW COULD SEND PEOPLE TO PRISON FOR 20 YEARS FOR USING THIS AI APP
“In total, more than 900 examples of AI use at work were shared with the researchers,” the outlet wrote. “The findings from those examples were striking: overall, those who trusted the accuracy of the AI tools found themselves thinking less critically, while those who trusted the tech less used more critical thought when going back over AI outputs.”
The study also found that AI use impacts creativity, as people using AI at work come up with a “less diverse set of outcomes for the same task,” as compared to people doing the same task without using AI.
“The data shows a shift in cognitive effort as knowledge workers increasingly move from task execution to oversight when using GenAI,” the study reads. “Surprisingly, while AI can improve efficiency, it may also reduce critical engagement, particularly in routine or lower-stakes tasks in which users simply rely on AI, raising concerns about long-term reliance and diminished independent problem-solving.”
These findings are not surprising. A study done in October of 2024 from Uplevel “revealed that AI coding assistants like GitHub Copilot are not significantly improving developer productivity or preventing burnout, despite the hype surrounding these tools,” according to Breitbart.
READ MORE: WILL OUR CHILDREN BE VICTIMS OF DIGITAL DEMENTIA?
- Content: +2Share:
- Content: +3