Is AI Making Us Lazy Thinkers?
We hand AI our emails, essays, and research. It’s fast, convenient, and capable of drafting, summarizing, and answering questions in seconds. But it’s worth asking: What do we give up when we let a machine do the thinking for us?
I’ll be honest: I use AI, and I know I’m not alone. It has become part of our everyday lives. But I keep coming back to one question: What happens to our minds when we rely on AI to do the thinking for us?
Convenience comes at a cost, and I’m not the only one raising concerns about how AI might affect our ability to think critically, solve problems, and learn independently.
So, let’s look at what the research says so far.
What the brain scans showed…
Researchers at MIT’s Media Lab conducted a study involving approximately 54 participants between the ages of 18 and 39. Participants wrote essays while wearing EEG headsets that monitored their brain activity. The results showed that those who used ChatGPT had the lowest levels of brain engagement among the three groups, while those who wrote without any tools demonstrated the strongest and most widespread neural connectivity.
Of course, this was a small study involving participants from a handful of universities in the Boston area. The researchers acknowledged these limitations, so I’m not treating the findings as the final word on AI and critical thinking.
Still, the results made me pause. We may not have all the answers yet, but this is a signal worth paying attention to. As we become increasingly comfortable letting AI do the thinking for us, we need to ask ourselves what that convenience might be costing us.
It's about how we use it
Harvard Gazette spoke with faculty across several disciplines about critical thinking in the age of AI, and one of their biggest takeaways stood out to me: AI can weaken both our basic skills, like memory and factual knowledge, and our higher-level skills, like critical thinking, when we rely on it too much.
The problem isn't the tool itself. It's what happens when we let the tool do all the thinking for us.
The article is long enough that I could honestly write a whole separate blog post about it, but here are a few points that caught my attention.
- Use AI to assist you, not do everything for you. There's a difference between using a tool to help you work through a problem and depending on it to do all the work.
- AI has its limits. It can help with problem-solving, but human experience, ethics, and moral reasoning still matter. Not everything can be figured out by a machine.
- Your brain needs exercise, too. Think of it this way: if you stop using certain skills, those skills can weaken over time. Our brains need us to think, question, analyze, and work through things for ourselves.
At the end of the day, convenience is great, but we have to be mindful of what we might be giving up in exchange for it.
If you have a little time, I recommend reading the full article. There's a lot to unpack, and it raises some important questions about how we're using AI and what that means for the way we think.
Our kids carry the most at stake…
A Brookings Institution report, covered by NPR, found that the risks generative AI poses to children and teens currently outweigh its benefits.
The report drew on interviews and focus groups across 50 countries, along with a review of hundreds of research articles. One of the biggest concerns was the potential harm to children's cognitive development.
Rebecca Winthrop, one of the report's authors, warned that when children are simply handed the answers, they miss out on the opportunity to think for themselves.
But it's not all bad news. The report describes the potential damage as fixable and acknowledges that AI can help children who have historically been shut out of the classroom gain access to education
As parents, educators, aunts, and uncles, we know that simply giving children everything they want doesn't teach them much. Sometimes, they need to struggle a little, figure things out, and learn along the way. I don't think using AI should be any different. Instead of letting children rely on AI to do the work for them, we should encourage them to think for themselves, write their own drafts, and conduct their own research before turning to AI for assistance.
The takeaway? AI has the potential to help children learn, but we have to be mindful of how we use it. Giving children answers is not the same as teaching them how to think.
How I'm choosing to use it…
I'm not telling you to delete the app. I'm telling you to think first.
Write your own rough draft before opening AI. Ask it to challenge your ideas, not replace them. Fact-check what it tells you before sharing it.
Protect the moments that require your own mind: learning, reflecting, questioning, and making decisions.
AI can be a useful tool, but it shouldn't do all the thinking for us. Treat it as a thinking partner, not a replacement.
Our minds are muscles, and just like any other muscle, they stay strong when we use them.
Tips On Choosing the Right AI Tool for the Job, Remember “Your mind is yours, and it stays strong when you use it.”
Not every AI tool does the same thing, and that’s something worth understanding before you start using them.
Some are better for research, others for writing, and some are designed to help you get creative or stay organized.
Here’s a quick breakdown of a few popular tools and what they do best.
- Perplexity AI: Best for researching information online, finding current information, and getting answers with direct links to sources. It's a useful starting point when you want to dig deeper into a topic, but remember to verify what you find.
- Google Gemini: Best for people who already use Google's tools, including Gmail, Google Docs, Sheets, Drive, YouTube, and Photos. It can help you work across these platforms and make everyday tasks easier.
- Microsoft Copilot: Best for workplace productivity. If you spend a lot of time using Microsoft 365, Copilot can help summarize email conversations, draft documents, and organize information.
- Midjourney: Best for creating artistic and stylized images from text descriptions. It's particularly useful for exploring creative concepts and generating visual ideas.
- Grammarly: Best for improving your writing. It can help catch grammatical errors, improve clarity, and adjust your tone. It's a handy tool when you want your writing to be polished without losing your message.
The point isn't to use every AI tool available. It's to understand what each one offers and decide whether it actually meets your needs. And regardless of which tool you choose, remember that AI can assist you, but you still need to think critically, question the information you're given, and use your own judgment.
Which AI tools do you use, and do you feel they help you think better or have you caught yourself relying on them a little too much?
Share your thoughts in the comments.
Sources
MIT Media Lab, Your Brain on ChatGPT
Harvard Gazette, Is AI dulling our minds?
NPR, The risks of AI in schools outweigh the benefits, report says
