In the first episode of THE VETO, I brought up a recently released MIT study about the impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) on the human brain. For this week’s memo, I want to explore this subject in more detail.
THE STUDY
As reported by Time Magazine and other prominent media sources, the study itself divided a group of adults, under the age of 40, into three groups. All the subjects were asked to write several essays. One group used ChatGPT to assist them in writing their essays, one used Google’s search engine, and one used no electronic assistance at all. The MIT researchers then used an EEG (electroencephalogram) to monitor the brain activity of the writers across 32 regions. The findings showed that “[c]ognitive activity scaled down in relation to external tool use.” ChatGPT users had the lowest brain engagement and constantly “underperformed at neural, linguistic, and behavioral levels.” After several months, the ChatGPT users got lazier with every iteration, regularly stooping to just copy-and-pasting the ChatGPT work product by the end of the study.
THE TAKEAWAY
Elon Musk predicted AI would become smarter than people by this year. However, most experts believe AI is not quite there, but they assert that the day is fast approaching. Ironically, AI will not need to grow much more intelligent to surpass our capability if human intelligence declines, and the technology might just be helping us do exactly that.
Milton Friedman once said, “There’s no such thing as a free lunch.” As with most progress in science in technology, society is first promised the cure, without any side effects. History tells us that there is no such thing.
It is certainly possible that AI could augment human intelligence and bring our overall capabilities to new heights. However, two things can be true at the same time: AI could bring our overall combined intelligence to higher levels, while our personal intelligence and cognitive engagement could still decline dramatically. In this sense, our own dependence on the technology could play a vital part in the rise of its superiority – a self-fulfilling prophecy.
I write this, not as an indictment against the technology, but as a simple caution concerning its personal use. President Trump rightly supports ramping up our nation’s AI technology to counter the CCP’s efforts to use the technology to dominate the world. In the broader sense, we have no choice but to develop the resource for the protection of our nation’s economic and national security. Yet, we each, as individuals, have a choice in how we use the tool.
While the MIT study is welcome academic research on the subject, it simply reaffirms what common sense tells us: if you don’t use it, you use lose it. Dependence on anything mandates a decline in something. In the case of AI, this could mean your cognitive abilities.
What separates us as human beings from the rest of Creation, is not just our ability to create new technology, it is our ability to apply discretion in using it. For mankind, this trait may be the only hope for our own legacy.
Very good article Robert. You can see the decline of people using their brains in many function's. They are relying on others and things to think for them. I hope this will be recognized soon and be curbed at school and work.