Thinking is hard. It's no wonder we lean on technology to lighten the load. We use calculators instead of doing long division by hand, digital maps for navigation, and search engines instead of countless trips to the library. Cognitive offloading of mental tasks to tools makes us more efficient. What's the harm?
Then came AI chatbots. Unlike earlier digital tools, they can tackle an astonishing range of tasks and are easy to use. At a prompt, AI generates essays, writes software, and fills knowledge gaps. It's cognitive offloading to the max.
Now people are asking: Is AI dulling our minds?
Yes and no, according to a new paper written by an international team of psychologists. AI can accelerate learning by giving people immediate guidance and feedback. But take the tool away, and those who rely on it often perform worse than people who learned the material on their own. Similarly, using AI to summarize information, rather than researching and organizing it yourself, often leads to shallower understanding.
But it's not all bad news. Core cognitive abilities — including attention, reasoning, and working memory — seem to be "stubbornly resistant" to manipulation, the team wrote.
As technology evolves, so does the way we gain knowledge and think for ourselves. AI may reshape not just what we learn, but how we learn to learn. Like any other tool, its impact comes down to how we use it. Completely relying on AI is likely detrimental. But as a collaborator that challenges ideas or fills knowledge gaps, it can boost performance even after the tool is taken away.
"There is clearly a risk that AI can make us 'stupid' by compromising our skills and knowledge if we completely offload them to AI," wrote the team. But AI may be less likely to diminish the foundational cognitive capacities that underpin our ability to think.
The AI Crutch
It's easy to rely on large language models — the algorithms behind chatbots — for help. Why read an assigned novel when AI can summarize it in seconds? Why draft an email reply or wrestle with an essay when a few prompts can do the work?
It seems like an easy hack, but there's a cost to handing over too much thinking.
Researchers have long studied cognitive offloading, or using external tools to reduce mental effort. Writing down a shopping list and keeping appointments in a calendar free up working memory, the brain's temporary mental workspace, and allow us to focus on more important tasks without having to remember every detail. AI is different: Beyond memory, it can offload critical thinking itself.
An MIT preprint introduced the idea of "cognitive debt" to describe the tradeoff. Participants wrote essays either with AI, using only a search engine, or with just their brains. Researchers monitored their brain activity during the task. Those using AI showed the weakest brain connectivity, which suggests they were less engaged. They also struggled to remember their own writing and felt the completed essay didn't reflect their ideas. When asked to write again without AI, they produced weaker work according to human judges.
Like financial debt, cognitive debt offers an immediate payoff with long-term consequences. Outsourcing mental effort makes writing faster and easier, but it reduces opportunities to build knowledge, strengthen reasoning, and practice critical thinking.
Other studies have found a similar pattern. Students learning a new mathematical concept solved practice questions better with AI help, but they struggled on a later test when left to think on their own. This suggests they had missed some of the practice needed to acquire the skill.
These effects extend beyond individual skills. A recent study asked participants to learn about gardening by either researching and synthesizing the knowledge themselves or asking AI for a summary. They were then asked to give advice to someone else without technological help. Answers from those who relied on AI were rated as generic and less helpful, suggesting a shallower understanding of the topic.
With Great Power
We're only beginning to understand how AI reshapes the mind. The crux is how we use it.
In the MIT essay-writing study, people who initially wrote on their own but later gained access to AI produced work with higher creativity and stronger arguments while retaining their original perspectives and voice. Likewise, students who used AI as a tutor — asking for hints rather than answers — performed well even after the chatbot was taken away.
Used thoughtfully, AI may enhance collaborative learning and brainstorming or serve as a writing coach. While it may erode a specific skill when it replaces practice, it can improve performance when it challenges ideas, provides hints, or fills genuine knowledge gaps.