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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.
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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.
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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")
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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.
