Cognitive offloading is the tendency of people to shrug off difficult or tedious mental tasks to external aids. The term was coined by Evan Risko, a professor of psychology at the University of Waterloo, and his colleague Sam Gilbert. Calculators spare cashiers from computing a bill; navigation apps remove the need for map-reading. Generative AI, however, allows people to offload a much more complex set of processes, including writing and problem-solving, raising concerns about long-term effects on cognition.
A study by researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology found that students who wrote essays with the help of ChatGPT exhibited markedly lower neural activity, as measured by electroencephalograms, in parts of the brain associated with creative functions and attention. Students who wrote with the chatbot's help also found it much harder to provide an accurate quote from the paper they had just produced.
A study by Microsoft Research, surveying 319 knowledge workers who used generative AI at least once a week, found that a majority reported needing less or much less cognitive effort to complete tasks with tools such as ChatGPT, Google Gemini or Microsoft's Copilot. Of more than 900 tasks described by participants, only 555 were deemed to require critical thinking.
Michael Gerlich, a professor at SBS Swiss Business School, asked 666 individuals in Britain how often they used AI and how much they trusted it, then posed them questions based on a widely used critical-thinking assessment. Participants who made more use of AI scored lower across the board.
In a study at the University of Toronto, 460 participants were asked to propose imaginative uses for everyday objects such as a car tyre or a pair of trousers. Those who had been exposed to ideas generated by AI tended to produce answers deemed less creative and diverse than a control group who worked unaided.
The tendency to seek the least effortful way to solve a problem, known as "cognitive miserliness", may create a feedback loop: as AI-reliant individuals find it harder to think critically, their brains become more miserly, leading to further offloading.
Researchers have proposed several approaches to mitigate cognitive decline from AI use. Barbara Larson, a professor of management at Northeastern University, suggests limiting AI's role to that of "an enthusiastic but somewhat naive assistant". A team from Emory and Stanford Universities has proposed rewiring chatbots to serve as "thinking assistants" that ask users probing questions rather than simply providing answers. Researchers have also tested "cognitive forcing" techniques — requiring users to come up with their own answer or wait before accessing AI — though these prove unpopular. In a survey conducted in 16 countries by Oliver Wyman, 47% of respondents said they would use generative-AI tools even if their employer forbade it.
More than any time in history, mankind now faces a crossroads. One path leads to despair and utter hopelessness, the other to total extinction. Let us pray that we have the wisdom to choose correctly.