The Take: Is ChatGPT hurting our critical thinking skills?
In this episode:
Celia Ford (@cogcelia) – Science Journalist and Neuroscientist
Episode credits:
This episode was produced by Haleema Shah, Sonia Bhagat, and Tamara Khandaker, with Marcos Bartolomé, Phillip Lanos, Spencer Cline, Melanie Marich, Kisaa Zehra, Remas Alhawari, and our guest host, Manuel Rapalo. It was edited by Kylene Kiang.
Our sound designer is Alex Roldan. Our video editors are Hisham Abu Salah and Mohannad al-Melhem. Alexandra Locke is The Take's executive producer. Ney Alvarez is Al Jazeera's head of audio.
Connect with us:
@AJEPodcasts on Instagram, X, Facebook, Threads and YouTube
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Al Jazeera
12 hours ago
- Al Jazeera
The Take: Is ChatGPT hurting our critical thinking skills?
Are AI chatbots dulling our brains? A new MIT study suggests critical thinking skills are at risk from tools like ChatGPT. What does the science say happens to brains that rely on AI? And how can you use AI tools while protecting your ability to think for yourself? In this episode: Celia Ford (@cogcelia) – Science Journalist and Neuroscientist Episode credits: This episode was produced by Haleema Shah, Sonia Bhagat, and Tamara Khandaker, with Marcos Bartolomé, Phillip Lanos, Spencer Cline, Melanie Marich, Kisaa Zehra, Remas Alhawari, and our guest host, Manuel Rapalo. It was edited by Kylene Kiang. Our sound designer is Alex Roldan. Our video editors are Hisham Abu Salah and Mohannad al-Melhem. Alexandra Locke is The Take's executive producer. Ney Alvarez is Al Jazeera's head of audio. Connect with us: @AJEPodcasts on Instagram, X, Facebook, Threads and YouTube
Al Jazeera
2 days ago
- Al Jazeera
Trump threatens to review subsidies on Musk-owned companies
Amid their public feud over the looming tax bill, US President Donald Trump has suggested that the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) review subsidies tied to once ally Elon Musk, including those received by Tesla and SpaceX, in order to save money. 'Elon may get more subsidy than any human being in history, by far, and without subsidies, Elon would probably have to close up shop and head back home to South Africa. No more Rocket launches, Satellites, or Electric Car Production, and our Country would save a FORTUNE. Perhaps we should have DOGE take a good, hard, look at this? BIG MONEY TO BE SAVED!!!,' the president said in an early morning post on Trump's social media platform Truth Social. Trump's remarks on Tuesday came after Musk renewed his criticism of the sweeping tax-cut and spending bill — which the White House hopes to sign into law by July 4th — pledging to unseat lawmakers who supported it after campaigning on limiting government spending. Shortly after, Senate Republicans hauled Trump's big tax breaks and spending cuts bill to passage Tuesday on the narrowest of margins, pushing past opposition from Democrats and their own GOP ranks after a turbulent overnight session. The outcome capped an unusually tense weekend of work at the Capitol, the president's signature legislative priority teetering on the edge of approval or collapse. In the end, that tally was 50-50, with Vice President JD Vance casting the tie-breaking vote. Musk and Trump spar over bill Feuding with Trump could create hurdles for Tesla and the rest of Musk's business empire. The US Transportation Department regulates vehicle design and would play a key role in deciding whether Tesla can mass-produce robotaxis without pedals and steering wheels, while Musk's rocket company SpaceX has about $22bn in federal contracts. Trump previously threatened to cut Musk's government contracts when their relationship erupted into an all-out social media brawl in early June over the bill, which non-partisan analysts have said would add about $3 trillion to the US debt. But after weeks of relative silence, Musk rejoined the debate on Saturday as the Senate took up the package, calling it 'utterly insane and destructive' in a post on X. On Monday, he said lawmakers who campaigned on cutting spending but backed the bill 'should hang their heads in shame!' 'And they will lose their primary next year if it is the last thing I do on this Earth,' Musk added. The criticism marked a dramatic shift after the billionaire spent nearly $300m on Trump's re-election campaign and led the administration's controversial DOGE initiative. Musk has argued that the legislation would greatly increase the national debt and erase the savings he says he achieved through DOGE. Conflicts of interest Musk was long slammed for his conflicts of interest while leading DOGE — accused of going after government agencies that had open investigations against him and his associated companies. A report from the left-leaning think tank Public Citizen found that 70 percent of the agencies in May found that Musk aimed to make significant cuts to agencies, including the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which had been investigating Tesla. The Food and Drug Administration, which had been investigating his brain implant chip, Neuralink, and cuts to the Department of Defense, which has been called for by both progressive Democrats as well, comes as SpaceX receives more than $22bn in federal contracts from the agency, according to the report. The market response There are conflicts with Musk within the bill he's actively rallying against. The bill, which Trump eliminated the EV tax credit, Musk originally said would not hurt Tesla. The EV tax credit, however, has helped other carmakers make more affordable electric vehicles for more consumers, and Musk has recently changed his tune. In a note last month, JP Morgan said cutting the EV tax credit could cost Tesla $1.2bn annually. Now the market is reacting as these plans might come to fruition in a matter of days, and amid the president's Truth Social post, spooking investors. Tesla stock tumbled roughly 6 percent as of 11:00am ET (15:00 GMT) and about 13 percent over the last five days. '[This] BFF situation has now turned into a soap opera that remains an overhang on Tesla's stock with investors fearing that the Trump Administration will be more hawkish and show scrutiny around Musk related US government spending related to Tesla/SpaceX and most importantly the autonomous future with the regulatory environment key to the future of Robotaxis and Cybercabs,' Dan Ives, senior analyst at Wedbush Securities said in a note provided to Al Jazeera earlier this morning. Musk's other companies include SpaceX, X Corp, and Neuralink are privately held companies. More broadly the markets erased some of the gains in the last few days. The tech-heavy Nasdaq is down by about a full percentage point and the S&P 500 down 0.3 percent. Dow Jones Industrial Average, on the other hand, is trending upwards, roughly 0.6 percent higher than the market open.
Al Jazeera
2 days ago
- Al Jazeera
Elon Musk slams Trump's ‘Big Beautiful Bill', calls for new political party
Tech billionaire Elon Musk has stepped up his criticism of United States President Donald Trump's tax cuts and spending bill and renewed his call for a new political party. Musk's criticism of Trump's 940-page 'Big, Beautiful Bill', which proposes tax breaks and sweeping cuts to healthcare and food programmes, has been met with strong criticism from the Democratic Party as well as some members of Trump's Republican Party. In early June, Musk, a major campaign donor to Trump and a former key aide, called the bill a 'disgusting abomination', leading to a public falling out with the Republican president. The two then appeared to cool tensions, with Trump telling reporters that he wished Musk well, while the latter wrote on X that he regretted having gone 'too far'. But as US Senators gathered to vote on amendments to the bill on Monday, Musk ramped up his criticism once again, saying lawmakers who had campaigned on cutting spending but backed the bill 'should hang their heads in shame!' 'And they will lose their primary next year if it is the last thing I do on this Earth,' Musk said. The Tesla and SpaceX CEO called for a new political party, saying the bill's massive spending indicated 'that we live in a one-party country – the PORKY PIG PARTY!!' 'Time for a new political party that actually cares about the people,' he wrote. Trump's DOGE suggestion Trump hit back at Musk on Tuesday, stating that the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) – which Musk had previously led – should review the subsidies that Musk's companies have received, to save the federal government 'BIG' money. 'Elon may get more subsidy than any human being in history, by far, and without subsidies, Elon would probably have to close up shop and head back home to South Africa. No more Rocket launches, Satellites, or Electric Car Production, and our Country would save a FORTUNE,' Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform. In response to Trump's post, Musk posted on his own platform, X, saying, 'I am literally saying CUT IT ALL. Now.' Hitting the debt ceiling is the only thing that will actually force the government to cut waste and fraud. That's why the debt ceiling legislation exists! — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 1, 2025 It remains unclear how much sway Musk has over the US Congress or what effect his statements might have on the bill's passage. But Republicans have expressed concern that his on-again, off-again feud with Trump could hurt their chances to protect their majority in the 2026 midterm congressional elections. Bill Schneider, a professor of public policy at George Mason University, told Al Jazeera it would likely be difficult for Musk to establish a viable political coalition consisting of the bill's opponents. 'Elon Musk is a billionaire. There are not enough billionaires to form a party in the US, even if they are unhappy with President Trump,' Schneider told Al Jazeera from Washington, DC. 'Now, he has issues with Trump, who is not a very popular figure. He has a lot of opponents, a lot of critics, particularly among women in the US,' he added. 'Republicans, almost all of whom are likely to support this particular bill, are very worried about how much debt it's creating because of the huge tax cuts. Democrats are worried about the dangers to the safety net. It's kind of hard to put those two worries, those two constituencies, together into one political party.'
