ChatGPT could affect your critical thinking skills, study finds
MIT researchersconducted a study analyzing the impact using ChatGPT in writing tasks can have on brain activity.
The study is part ofMIT's Media Lab project called"Your Brain on ChatGPT," which is designed to assess the cognitive effect of relying on large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT when authoring essays.
Dig deeper
Approximately 54 people between the ages of 18 and 39 participated in the study. The individuals were divided into three groups to compose several essays.
RELATED: ChatGPT may be smart enough to graduate law school
One group was allowed to use ChatGPT; the second, Google search; and the third, no AI tools at all. An electroencephalography (EEG) headset was used by the participants while writing to measure the participants' brain activity across 32 regions of the brain.
Each patient drafted essays in three sessions and in a fourth session, some participants were reassigned. The individuals who used ChatGPT transitioned to writing unaided (called "LLM-to-Brain") while some who started the brain-only exercise used the LLM ("Brain-to-LLM")
RELATED: ChatGPT outperformed doctors in diagnostic accuracy, study reveals
The participants' essays were scored by both human teachers and an AI judge, and at the conclusion of the assignment, each person was interviewed following the sessions with researchers asking them about how much they felt they owned their writing.
Researchers determined that of the three groups in the study, the ChatGPT users experienced the lowest brain engagement.
The team concluded that their study has limitations that they document in their report and website and that more research is needed to better understand the use of ChatGPT in various parts of daily life.
The Source
Information for this story was provided by an MIT study, which is part of the MIT Media project "Your Brain on ChatGPT." This story was reported from Washington, D.C.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Washington Post
34 minutes ago
- Washington Post
Investigation into Florida condo collapse is expected to finish in 2026
More than four years after a Florida condominium collapse killed 98 people , federal investigators have yet to make a final determination of the cause — but they do have some leading theories. The National Institute of Standards and Technology, the agency handling the probe, said this week it hopes to conclude the investigation in 2026.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Why GitLab Stock Jumped Nearly 4% Higher on Thursday
One analyst tracking the company got a preview of its new software suite. He was particularly impressed with its integration with artificial intelligence (AI) functionalities. 10 stocks we like better than GitLab › A new analyst note was the wind under the wings of GitLab (NASDAQ: GTLB) stock on Thursday. Shares of the software development and cybersecurity solutions provider ticked almost 4% higher on the day as a result. This rise was several orders of magnitude better than the S&P 500 index's sub-1% increase. The person behind the fresh analysis was William Blair's Jason Ader. In his newest GitLab note, Ader reiterated his confident outperform (read: buy) recommendation on the company's shares. According to reports, the analyst's update was something of a reaction to GitLab's latest software package release. Ader wrote that the company held a virtual launch of its GitLab 18, a suite he said features more than 30 improvements to functionalities of earlier products. The pundit went into some detail about GitLab 18, writing that a notable feature of the new software is its Duo Agent Platform. This allows the product's users to harness artificial intelligence (AI) agents across all aspects of the software development life cycle. These agents can assist with many tasks, including coding -- typically a time-consuming and laborious activity. While analyst buy recommendations frequently inspire investors to either hold or purchase a stock, I suspect this recommendation on its own isn't what drove GitLab's surge on Thursday. Rather, it's Ader's considerable dive into the AI aspect of GitLab 18. Investors are still very hungry to buy into this white-hot and rapidly developing technology, and GitLab is clearly embracing it strongly. Before you buy stock in GitLab, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the for investors to buy now… and GitLab wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $687,731!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $945,846!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 818% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 175% for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join . See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of June 23, 2025 Eric Volkman has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends GitLab. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Why GitLab Stock Jumped Nearly 4% Higher on Thursday was originally published by The Motley Fool Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
I'm not built for whatever I heard in Phasmophobia's Chronicle update, which adds terrifying new sounds you can't afford to run from
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. The big Phasmophobia Chronicle update launches tomorrow, June 24, and brings a long list of bug fixes and tool reworks with it. As part of the tool shake-up, developer Kinetic Games also overhauled the journal's media section for capturing evidence. It's great if you're tired of being limited to a photo camera. But, if you're a coward like me who usually takes pictures of salt and runs, I've got bad news. The bad news being you can't do that anymore (I tried) and holy shit the new ghost noises are scary. Instead of demanding you strictly take photos as evidence of a haunting, Phasmophobia's ghost-hunting bosses now want pictures plus recorded audio and video. Apparently, all my slightly off-centered photos of disturbed salt piles are no longer worth money. I tried to sell several over the weekend in my early hands-on with the Chronicle update, but no dice. Image 1 of 4 Image 2 of 4 Image 3 of 4 Image 4 of 4 Chronicle adds a bunch of little things, like new social elements to Phasmophobia's UI and other quality-of-life goodies, but I honed in on playing with the new Sound Recorder. Since my old cheap habits were no longer a valid means to score a perfect investigation, I had to confront ghosts and stay in the room to use the Sound Recorder when they acted up. Sure, Phas players are used to all manner of ungodly racket, but forcing you to run toward the noise for a clip is a whole other ask. Especially with so many new sounds, too. I heard the usual creaky footsteps and door-slamming, but Phasmophobia added more hellish whispering and actual phrases. It captures more of the original Spirit Box charm, prompting ghosts to respond with their own disembodied voices instead of relying on bits and pieces of radio broadcasters. It's not as funny as hearing a Microsoft Sam demon get snippy in the dark, but I like it way more than the more boring Spirit Box audio of today. 2025 games: This year's upcoming releasesBest PC games: Our all-time favoritesFree PC games: Freebie festBest FPS games: Finest gunplayBest RPGs: Grand adventuresBest co-op games: Better together It's not just voices, either. At one point, I heard what sounded like two pieces of metal slamming into each other in a bathroom, and I still don't know what it was (not that I really tried to figure it out, anyway). As soon as I heard the last of it, I was already back in the truck and mashing the control panel to leave. I did a lot of that before finally working up the nerve to truly investigate a haunting. After a solid few rounds of growing annoyed by my own cowardice, my sense of self-preservation was finally out the door, and I barreled into Camp Woodwind demanding a ghost by the name of Jim Emmett tell me how old he is. He kept his age a secret, but he did whisper, "I'm watching you," over the Parabolic. Phas says I need 13 pieces of evidence like this for a perfect game, but I think one instance of ominous murmuring is proof enough—camp's haunted. When it comes to actually recording—not hearing something over the Parabolic from the other side of the map—I struggled with the Tier 1 Sound Recorder. Upgrading to the Tier 3 device predictably made the task way easier, but I still wasn't always clear on why some recordings didn't make it into the journal as evidence. I'm assuming it's some combination of being a huge wuss and good ole Phas jank, but it was never so cumbersome that I drove off in frustration. If it's not obvious already, sometimes I'm the truck friend, but that's more acceptable now. Chronicle makes things harder in plenty of ways, but it's also kind to your easily spooked buddies by adding more options for monitoring the action from a safe distance. They can watch for the usual ghost behaviors from a much nicer video interface or participate in recording footage, assuming you set the cameras up properly. On more than one occasion, I did wind up back in the ghost room trying to move cameras around for a more accurate picture, but it's nothing players aren't used to now. Sometimes a ghost would do multiple things at once, like trigger a motion sensor and throw something, so I'd wind up with a duplicate recording trying to score something unique. Duplicates are worth less and don't count toward a perfect investigation, so it's a bummer when it happens. But I just took it as a chance to play more strategically by picking up tools I was done with or taking a little more care with the record button. It's a patch I was feeling a little on the fence about, not convinced a media rework was a big deal, but I'm happily wrong. It's impressive how careful little tweaks to the Phasmophobia formula so easily reinvigorate a ghost hunt. Add a few unfamiliar sounds and limit some of my old habits, then I'm floundering like it's day one again. It's not punitive either, I don't feel punished for limiting my old shortcuts to bonuses. Instead, the Chronicle update just forces more of that giddy terror, tempting my ghost-hunting gang with more rewards for playing with an expanded toolset.
