Prolonged use of the popular chatbot ChatGPT may have negative effects on brain function, with a new study warning that it could actually “rewire” the brain.
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According to Fox News, a recent study conducted by researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) found that using ChatGPT to write multiple essays over several months can impair cognitive abilities.
The study involved 54 participants divided into three groups: the first used ChatGPT to write various essays for four months, the second relied solely on search engines, and the third depended entirely on their own thinking.
At the end of the four months, the ChatGPT group was asked to write an essay without any tools, while the group that relied only on their brains was asked to use ChatGPT for assistance, according to Asharq Al-Awsat.
Throughout the study, researchers monitored participants’ brain activity using electroencephalography (EEG) to evaluate cognitive engagement and neural activity. Participants also shared their subjective feedback during interviews.
The researchers wrote: “EEG analysis provided strong evidence that the ChatGPT group, the search engine group, and the brain-only group exhibited significantly different neural connectivity patterns.”
They added: “Our results showed a decrease in neural connectivity in the brains of participants who used external tools to help write their essays. The brain-only group demonstrated the strongest neural connectivity, followed by the search engine group, while the ChatGPT group showed the weakest neural engagement.”
When the ChatGPT group was asked to write without any tools, they displayed “weaker neural connectivity,” lower cognitive engagement, and reduced ability to recall information from the essays they had just written.
Conversely, the brain-only group, when asked to use ChatGPT, showed “better recall of information” and greater cognitive engagement.
Based on these findings, the researchers suggested a potential decline in learning skills among regular ChatGPT users.
The research team noted that they hope to conduct future studies with a larger sample size to validate these results.
