Does ChatGPT harm critical thinking abilities? A new study from researchers at MIT’s Media Lab has returned some concerning results.
The study divided 54 subjects—18 to 39 year-olds from the Boston area—into three groups, and asked them to write several essays using OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google’s search engine, and nothing at all (their brains), respectively. Researchers found that of the three groups, ChatGPT users had the lowest brain engagement and “consistently underperformed at neural, linguistic, and behavioral levels.” Over the course of several months, ChatGPT users got lazier with each subsequent essay, often resorting to copy-and-paste by the end of the study.
However, when inversing the groups , those that used their brains during the first essays, got even better when they were using ChatGTP afterwards. The study implicates that the “timing” of introducting such tools to students matters!
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Credits: TIME