inquiry writing #2
Author: The Open Minds Foundation
Is Generative AI Rewiring Our Brains? Here’s How It Happens. (2025). Psychology Today. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-art-of-critical-thinking/202512/is-generative-ai-rewiring-our-brains-heres-how-it-happens
Is Generative AI Rewiring Our Brains?
Here's How It Happens
AI adoption brings significant advantages, but it can come at a cognitive cost.
Posted December 9, 2025 | Reviewed by Abigail Fagan
Key points
Early studies suggest that AI has led to a traceable cognitive shift.
By removing the opportunity for independent thought, AI may undermine critical thinking and problem-solving.
Critical thinking is key to a better performing society.
Having previously explored a study that suggests AI is making us stupider, it comes as no surprise that it might be because it is rewiring the way we think.
And it's even less of a surprise when we consider evolution's built-in "safety" features that predispose us to making snap judgements over deep thinking, leaving us even more vulnerable.
Despite being an organ, the brain is often likened to a muscle, strengthened through "exercise" that grows our cognitive capability. Key thinking frameworks like critical thinking can be embraced, improving our second-nature reasoning through long-term practise. But in the same way it can improve, it can also atrophy, and the evidence suggests that AI can make that happen. Many are now "outsourcing" their thinking to AI platforms, and it is this that leaves us vulnerable.
Is it just a lack of exercise, or is AI actually rewiring our brains?
Well, academically, the jury is still out on what is actually happening, but early studies are suggesting that it's more than just a lazy brain and is in fact a traceable cognitive shift.
Thinking is a complex process that incorporates several different lobes of the brain while we figure something out.
As well as flexing the "muscle" of our brain, these processes are responsible for understanding, the transfer to memory, and brain health, and are an important value that results from the process of thinking.
AI circumvents that in what academics are referring to as "cognitive offloading".
Cognitive offloading is unlikely to be conscious, but it is the result of the seductive reality of AI, offering us perceived speed, efficiency, and value that can be attained with minimal effort. Set against a backdrop of busy lives, growing workloads, and hectic schedules, it is no wonder that AI feels better. If we asked readers the question "Should we think for ourselves?" the likely overwhelming answer will be "of course", but AI adoption isn't this transactional. We're not choosing between thinking or AI. We're choosing efficiency and it just so happens that it is offloading our thinking. The reality of tools that summarise and draft emails, that break down complex concepts and articles, that provide us with personalised schedules, or are generating content is that they skip many of our automatic thinking processes. In doing so, they're undermining our cognitive capabilities, and they are likely reducing the neuroplasticity of our brains, and their ability to develop new neural pathways, triggered by experiences, learning, injury, or focused attention.
What does the research say?
Beyond the MIT study that we covered in this post, it's early days and many of the studies are small and not yet peer-reviewed, but viewed together, they certainly present a concerning outlook:
A UK study of 600 people highlighted the risk of AI substitution, with people employing AI tools as substitutes and not supplements to routine tasks.
The study states there is a “significant negative correlation between the frequent use of AI tools and critical thinking abilities”.
A study conducted with students in Turkey found that employing an AI-tutor makes us better at problem-solving, but only when using the tool.
When the tool is removed, however, students performed worse than if they'd had no tutor at all, suggesting a negative impact on our skills development and cognitive ability.
A study conducted by Microsoft and Carnegie Mellon University found that AI offers efficiency, but by removing opportunity for independent thought, it undermines our critical thinking skills and problem-solving.
This correlation is particularly prevalent in people who accept AI's content as gospel without independent checking.
A study by KPMG and the University of Melbourne looked at the impact of AI at work.
As well as finding that many workers hide their use of AI, or have compromised work data through AI, more than half of those surveyed highlighted that they had made a mistake at work as a result of AI.
While this lacks relevance in our pursuit of the impact of AI on the brain, it does indicate the growing reliance on the tool, combined with accidental exploitation of our brain's weakness - our desire for speed over accuracy.
This suggests that prolonged use will continue to erode the cognitive capabilities and can have far-reaching consequences for our ability to think critically.
Why is AI so impactful?
Put simply, confidence or perhaps more accurately, authority.
AI is not all-knowing.
It is not a knowledge database.
It is a predictive tool that offers answers based on probability and likely value.
This is why it has often been shown to hallucinate, providing false or inaccurate information.
It works, however, for several reasons. First, it speaks with confident authority. Answers are returned using factual language, and the tone suggests accuracy even when that accuracy is unsubstantiated. It provides an illusion of intelligence which is enough to secure our confidence. There are several factors at play in our brains here: truth bias — where our brains are predisposed to believing what we read is true, the illusory truth effect — where our brains become more certain of the information the more times we encounter it, even if we have been told or shown it is false, confirmation bias — where we favour information that aligns with what we already know, and trust in authority — where authority figures or sources override our own critical thinking skills. AI is a potent exploiter of these attributes, and while it hasn't necessarily been developed for nefarious gain, it works because our brains are wired in a way that it can exploit. Combine this with a reduction of the messy, oftentimes difficult reality of thinking, and it is unsurprising that AI is so impactful on our neural pathways.
Does it matter?
Potentially, this question should be directed to each individual user of AI to determine their own value for cognitive capability, much of which would no doubt be attributed to efficiency, workplace earnings, opportunity cost, etc.
However, there is also a significant societal benefit to the very critical thinking skills that AI is potentially undermining.
Aside from original, creative thought, which is one of the very foundations of being human, critical thinking helps assure informed citizens, strengthen democracy, boost innovation, improve problem-solving, reduce bias, and much more besides, leading to better communities and social networks.
Lack of critical thinking has been analysed in every scenario from religious and political extremism, to likelihood to succeed, reliance on the welfare state through to gang membership and prison intakes, showcasing consistently that critical thinking is key to a better performing society.
It is this that should concern us about the impact on individual's thinking, and their ability to reason.
AI is not all bad. It isn't the star of the next horror movie, and it isn't out to get us. But it is limited, and it can be dangerous. Should we be using it? Yes, it undoubtedly brings benefits. But we should proceed with caution and be wary of outsourcing our thinking.
on the uploaded document.
0 General Document comments
0 Sentence and Paragraph comments
0 Image and Video comments
New Conversation
New Conversation
New Conversation
New Conversation
New Conversation
New Conversation
New Conversation
New Conversation
New Conversation
New Conversation
General Document Comments 0
