Wall St. Journal writer Sam Schechner wrote an interesting article titled “How I Realized AI Was Making Me Stupid–and What I Do Now.”
Schechner tapped into a fear that I have for my students and all students more generally: cognitive offloading, the process by which humans avoid critical thinking or tasks requiring complex thought by letting AI do the “thinking” or complex task for them.
Some studies show “a significant negative correlation between frequent AI tool usage and critical thinking abilities, mediated by increased cognitive offloading. Younger participants exhibited higher dependence on AI tools and lower critical thinking scores compared to older participants.”
I’ve had these fears for a while and wrote about them in 2023 (below). Nothing in the intervening 2 years has allayed my fears. Indeed, I think the studies have made them intensify.
