A new study shows that an overreliance on artificial intelligence (AI) to perform certain tasks reduces critical thinking skills.
The study, conducted by Carnegie Mellon and Microsoft, found that people who use AI regularly for basic, routine tasks will lose their ability for complex critical thinking. The study focused on what it referred to as 319 “knowledge workers,” meaning professionals who deal in problem-solving of some kind, and found some rather alarming results on the effects of AI. Per Futurism:
From social workers to people who write code for a living, the professionals surveyed were all asked to share three real-life examples of when they used AI tools at work and how much critical thinking they did when executing those tasks. In total, more than 900 examples of AI use at work were shared with the researchers.
The findings from those examples were striking: overall, those who trusted the accuracy of the AI tools found themselves thinking less critically, while those who trusted the tech less used more critical thought when going back over AI outputs.
The researchers wrote in the paper that AI can result “in the deterioration of cognitive faculties that ought to be preserved.”
“A key irony of automation is that by mechanising routine tasks and leaving exception-handling to the human user, you deprive the user of the routine opportunities to practice their judgement and strengthen their cognitive musculature, leaving them atrophied and unprepared when the exceptions do arise,” the researchers said.
“The data shows a shift in cognitive effort as knowledge workers increasingly move from task execution to oversight when using GenAI,” the researchers continued. “Surprisingly, while AI can improve efficiency, it may also reduce critical engagement, particularly in routine or lower-stakes tasks in which users simply rely on AI, raising concerns about long-term reliance and diminished independent problem-solving.”
Futurism noted that the decline in critical thinking skills has been observed in “many domains, from self-driving vehicles to scrutinizing news articles produced by AI.”
“The use of AI also appeared to hinder creativity, the researchers found, with workers using AI tools producing a ‘less diverse set of outcomes for the same task’ compared to people relying on their own cognitive abilities,” added Futurism.
As Breitbart News reported in October of last year, a recent study from Uplevel showed that “AI coding assistants like GitHub Copilot are not significantly improving developer productivity or preventing burnout, despite the hype surrounding these tools.”
“The study, which tracked around 800 developers over three-month periods, compared their output with and without the use of GitHub Copilot,” said the report. “Surprisingly, the results showed no meaningful improvements in key metrics such as pull request cycle time and throughput for those using the AI coding assistants. This finding contradicts the claims made by GitHub and other proponents of AI coding tools, who have touted massive productivity gains.”
Paul Roland Bois directed the award-winning Christian tech thriller, EXEMPLUM, which has a 100% Rotten Tomatoes critic rating and can be viewed for FREE on YouTube, Tubi, or Fawesome TV. “Better than Killers of the Flower Moon,” wrote Mark Judge. “You haven’t seen a story like this before,” wrote Christian Toto. A high-quality, ad-free rental can also be streamed on Google Play, Vimeo on Demand, or YouTube Movies. Follow him on X @prolandfilms or Instagram @prolandfilms.
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