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MIT Study Finds AI Use Reprograms the Brain, Leading to Cognitive Decline

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Re: MIT Study Finds AI Use Reprograms the Brain, Leading to Cognitive Decline

#81

Post by jajko »

bookofjoe wrote: post #53
pjio wrote: post #17

First step out of this mess: Use AI only to proof read or get a second opinion, but not to write the whole thing.

That ship has sailed. >Everyone Is Cheating Their Way Through College. ChatGPT has unraveled the entire academic project. https://archive.ph/ZKZiY

Its as if somebody finds shocking the fact that people are generally lazy. Then you have the other extreme group, deniers. "I work more than ever!", "I ask even more questions!" and so on here and elsewhere.

Sure you do, and maybe its really an actual benefit for ya. Not for most though. For young folks still going through education, this is devastating. If I didn't have kids I wouldn't care, less quality competition at work, but I do (too young to be affected by it now, and by the time they will be allowed to use these, frameworks for use and restrictions will be in place already).

But since maybe 30% of folks here are directly or indirectly dependent on LLMs to be pushed down every possible throat and then some more, I expect much more denial and resistance to critique of their little pets or investments.

Re: MIT Study Finds AI Use Reprograms the Brain, Leading to Cognitive Decline

#82

Post by infecto »

Taek wrote: post #76
infecto wrote: post #46

Everyone is different. I don’t have a good grasp on the distribution of HN readers these days but I know for myself as a heavy user of LLMs, I am not sold on this for myself. I am asking more questions than ever. I use it for proof reading and editing. But I can see the risk as a software engineer. I really appreciate tools like cursor, I give it bite size chunks and review. Using tools like Claude code though. It be…

Cognitive decline is a broad term, and a research paper could claim "decline" if even a single cognitive metric loses strength. When writing was invented, societies started depending on long form memorization less, which is a cognitive "decline". When calculators were invented, societies started depending on mental math less, which is a cognitive "decline". I'm sure LLMs are doing the same thing. People aren't gettin…

This is super interesting and I had not thought about it like that!

Re: MIT Study Finds AI Use Reprograms the Brain, Leading to Cognitive Decline

#83

Post by IAmBroom »

xnorswap wrote: post #54
infecto wrote: post #46

Everyone is different. I don’t have a good grasp on the distribution of HN readers these days but I know for myself as a heavy user of LLMs, I am not sold on this for myself. I am asking more questions than ever. I use it for proof reading and editing. But I can see the risk as a software engineer. I really appreciate tools like cursor, I give it bite size chunks and review. Using tools like Claude code though. It be…

> I am asking more questions than ever. I don't have a dog in this fight, but "asking more questions" could be evidence of cognitive decline if you're having to ask more questions than ever! It's easy to twist evidence to fit biases, which is why I'd hold judgement to better evidence comes through.

Well, that's certainly a take.

But if I'm teaching a class, and one student keeps asking questions that they feel the material raised, I don't tend to think "brain damage". I think "engaged and interested student".

Re: MIT Study Finds AI Use Reprograms the Brain, Leading to Cognitive Decline

#84

Post by charlie-83 »

xnorswap wrote: post #54
infecto wrote: post #46

Everyone is different. I don’t have a good grasp on the distribution of HN readers these days but I know for myself as a heavy user of LLMs, I am not sold on this for myself. I am asking more questions than ever. I use it for proof reading and editing. But I can see the risk as a software engineer. I really appreciate tools like cursor, I give it bite size chunks and review. Using tools like Claude code though. It be…

> I am asking more questions than ever. I don't have a dog in this fight, but "asking more questions" could be evidence of cognitive decline if you're having to ask more questions than ever! It's easy to twist evidence to fit biases, which is why I'd hold judgement to better evidence comes through.

Not OP but there's a difference between needing to ask more questions and asking more questions because its easier now.

Personally, I find myself often asking AI about things I wouldn't have been bothered to find out about before.

For example I've always these funny little grates on the outside of houses near me and wondered what they are. Googling "little grates outside houses" doesn't help at all. Give AI a vagueish description and it instantly tells you they are old boot scapers.

Re: MIT Study Finds AI Use Reprograms the Brain, Leading to Cognitive Decline

#85

Post by unethical_ban »

jennyholzer wrote: post #21
mansilladev wrote: post #18

“…our cognitive abilities and creative capacities appear poised to take a nosedive into oblivion.” Don’t sugarcoat it. Tell us how you really feel.

I think developers who use "AI" coding assistants are putting their careers at risk.

Were accountants that adopted Excel foolish?

Like any new tool that automates a human process, humans must still learn the manual process to understand the skill.

Students should still learn to write all their code manually and build things from the ground up before learning to use AI as an assistant.

Re: MIT Study Finds AI Use Reprograms the Brain, Leading to Cognitive Decline

#86

Post by nperez »

I feel like this sort of thing will be referenced for comic relief in future talks about hysteria at the dawn of the AI era.

The article actually contains the sentence "The machines aren’t just taking over our work—they’re taking over our minds." which reminds me more of Reefer Madness than an honest critique of modern tech.

Re: MIT Study Finds AI Use Reprograms the Brain, Leading to Cognitive Decline

#87

Post by SkyBelow »

The main issue I see is that the methodology section of the paper limited the full time to 20 minutes. Is this a study of using LLMs to write an essay for you, or using LLMs to help you write an essay? To be fair, LLMs can't be swapped between the two modes, so the distinction is left up to the user in how they engage in.

Thinking about it myself, and looking at the questions and time limits, I'm not sure how I would be able to navigate that distinction given only 20 minutes. The way I would use an LLM to aid me in writing an essay on the topic wouldn't fit within the time limit, so even with an LLM, I would likely stick to brain only except in a few specific case that might occur (forgetting how to spell a word or forgetting a name for a concept).

So this study likely is applicable to similar timed instances, like letting use LLMs on a test, but that's one I would have already seen as extremely problematic for learning to begin with (granted, still worth while to find evidence to back even the 'obvious' conclusions).

Re: MIT Study Finds AI Use Reprograms the Brain, Leading to Cognitive Decline

#88

Post by sudosteph »

Meanwhile my main use cases for AI outside of work:

- Learning how to solder

- Learning how to use a multimeter

- Learning to build basic circuits on breadboxes

- learning about solar panels, mppt, battery management system, and different variations of li-on batteries

- learning about LoRa band / meshtastic / how to build my own antenna

And every single one of these things I've learned I've also applied practically to experiment and learn more. I'm doing things with my brain that I couldn't do before, and it's great. When something doesn't work like I thought it would, AI helps me understand where I may have went wrong, I ask it a ton of questions, and I try again until I understand how it works and how to prove it.

You could say you can learn all of this from YouTube, but I can't stand watching videos. I have a massive textbook about electronics, but it doesn't help me break down different paths to what I actually want to do.

And to be blunt: I like making mistakes and breaking things to learn. That strategy works great for software (not in prod obviously...), but now I can do it reasonably effectively for cheap electronics too.

Re: MIT Study Finds AI Use Reprograms the Brain, Leading to Cognitive Decline

#89

Post by IAmBroom »

bgwalter wrote: post #65
bookofjoe wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That ship has sailed. >Everyone Is Cheating Their Way Through College. ChatGPT has unraveled the entire academic project. https://archive.ph/ZKZiY

Not in China: https://nypost.com/2025/08/19/world-news/china-restricts-ai-... "That’s because the Chinese Communist Party knows their youth learn less when they use artificial intelligence. Surely, President Xi Jinping is reveling in this leg up over American students, who are using AI as a crutch and missing out on valuable learning experiences as a result. It’s just one of the ways China protects their youth, while…

Then there's this new law in China, which sounds amazing - informing, not censoring.

https://www.scmp.com/tech/policy/article/3323959/chinas-soci...

Re: MIT Study Finds AI Use Reprograms the Brain, Leading to Cognitive Decline

#90

Post by falcor84 »

jennyholzer wrote: post #21
mansilladev wrote: post #18

“…our cognitive abilities and creative capacities appear poised to take a nosedive into oblivion.” Don’t sugarcoat it. Tell us how you really feel.

I think developers who use "AI" coding assistants are putting their careers at risk.

I would say that the careers of everyone who views themselves as writing code for a living are already at great risk. So if you're in that situation, you have to see how to go up (or down) the ladder of abstraction, and getting comfortable with using GenAI is possibly a good way to do that.
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