Do you use AI often? Perhaps you lack critical thinking.

We have heard many times that Artificial Intelligence (AI) It could steal our jobs, but we didn’t realize that maybe it could also steal our critical thinking. This is the conclusion of a study recently published Michael Gerlichfrom the Swiss Business School SBS in Zurich.

In previous research, Gerlich suggested that AI could be involved in something known as educational download. This happens when we are looking for something to help us avoid mental tasks what we could otherwise do ourselves. Already with the advent of Google, there was a fear that we would retain less and less knowledge. There is no need to remember a lot of things because we can find them with just one click. With AI we go further, because it is not about memorizing knowledge, but about abandoning decisions and other relatively mundane cognitive tasks.

This requires a lot from us mental load, This is true. However, Gerlich suspected that it could also affect our critical thinking. After all, the brain is like a muscle. If we don’t train it, it will atrophy. To have critical thinking, we need an active mind, and this is where AI can hurt us.

The connection between AI and critical thinking

Gerlich recruited 666 volunteers to conduct his study (we do not know whether the exact number was chosen deliberately). They all had to answer a series of questions about their habits towards AI and, in addition, others aimed at analyzing it ability of critical thinking.

Most often, AI was used by young people who were more familiar with new technologies. They began to use chatbots more often, such as ChatGPT. The opposite happened with older participants. But, in addition, it was clear that the younger one had poor critical thinking than the rest. This is consistent with Gerlich’s prediction, although logically there are some limitations that should be explored further.

The first is that data was provided independently. That is, the participants themselves provided information about their AI habits. Since everyone will have their own criteria, we cannot talk about homogeneous data. Moreover, it is possible that the changes in critical thinking were not driven by the use of AI. In fact, it turned out that these are volunteers with a higher level of education, regardless of the use of artificial intelligence.

What can be done to prevent these problems from getting worse?

Gerlich and other experts believe that to ensure that critical thinking in the population does not become less and less, no matter what the impact of AI, it is important back it up with education. The population needs to be educated on the importance of being critical and thinking about our surroundings without putting all our decisions and thoughts into the hands of an algorithm.

It’s true that AI has come to make our lives easier, but that doesn’t mean we should stop thinking. We have to find a balance between reducing the mental load we really need and not thinking at all.