There was even one long-running advertising campaign that had the slogan ‘More doctors smoke Camels than any other cigarette’.
Today, the World Health Organization says that tobacco kills more than 7 million people each year, including 1.6 million non-smokers who are exposed to second-hand smoke.
With projections indicating a significant increase in the incidence of dementia, and numbers predicted to double every 20 years according to Alzheimer’s Disease International because of our ageing population, it may be worth considering what the exploding trend of AI may be doing to our collective brains.
A study by MIT university explored the neural and behavioural consequence of students using the generative AI chatbot, ChatGPT to help them write essays. The study divided 54 subjects aged from 18 to 39, into three groups, and asked them to write several essays using ChatGPT, Google’s search engine, and nothing at all, respectively.
Of the three groups, the researchers found that ChatGPT users had the lowest brain engagement and consistently underperformed at neural, linguistic, and behavioural levels. The group that wrote essays using ChatGPT all delivered extremely similar essays that lacked original thought, relying on the same expressions and ideas. Two English teachers who assessed the essays called them largely “soulless”.
The brain-only group, conversely, showed the highest neural connectivity, especially in bands associated with creativity ideation, memory load, and semantic processing. Researchers found this group was more engaged and curious.
After writing the essays, the subjects were then asked to re-write one, but the ChatGPT group had to do so without the tool. The ChatGPT group remembered little of their own essays, and showed weaker brainwaves, which likely reflected a bypassing of deep memory processes. Lead researcher Nataliya Kosmyna felt it was important to release the findings to elevate concerns that as society increasingly relies upon AI for convenience, long-term brain development may be sacrificed in the process, with developing brains at the highest risk.
