The smarter AI gets, the duller our brains become.
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Editor's note: Research has found that just 15 minutes of using AI can weaken people's problem-solving ability and willingness to persevere, and long-term dependence can even lead to cognitive decline. In the current situation where AI investment continues to soar while the cultivation of human thinking is ignored, we are facing an intellectual gap where "the smarter the tools, the duller we become." This article is from a compilation, hoping to inspire you.
Key points:
After humans outsource thinking tasks to artificial intelligence, their cognitive abilities will gradually decline.
New research shows that just 15 minutes of using artificial intelligence can have a negative impact on people's problem-solving ability and willingness to persevere.
The proper way to use artificial intelligence: Use AI to find ideas, but insist on independent thinking and solve problems on your own.
Some progress actually erodes the things it intends to optimize. Building roads for cars has made pedestrian streets gradually lose their vitality; highly processed foods that emphasize convenience have quietly changed human appetite and metabolism. Now, artificial intelligence, the most powerful cognitive tool in human history, is repeating the same mistake: It was originally designed to assist the brain, but instead, it is weakening our own thinking ability.
This ironic phenomenon is right in front of us, but we always turn a blind eye to it. In 2025, global AI-related spending was close to $1.5 trillion, and it is expected to exceed $2 trillion in 2026. In 2024 alone, corporate investment in the field of artificial intelligence reached $252.3 billion, more than 13 times the investment a decade ago. Countries are competing to build large-scale AI R & D centers, and major enterprises also regard the integrated development of artificial intelligence as a necessary path to enhance competitiveness. The industry is developing at an amazing speed, and relevant layouts have become the norm.
At the same time, the budgets for cultivating human abilities, conducting speculative education, and training cognitive resilience have either been neglected or directly cut. The saved funds are then invested in intelligent systems that gradually replace human thinking ability.
Just ten minutes, and the thinking ability has already been affected
A set of experimental data has deeply alarmed many researchers. A research team from Carnegie Mellon University, the University of Oxford, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the University of California, Los Angeles, conducted a large-scale controlled experiment. A total of 1,222 subjects were recruited for three groups of randomized controlled tests, which for the first time empirically proved that even short-term use of AI can significantly reduce people's problem-solving ability and perseverance in overcoming difficulties.
The experiment required the subjects to solve fraction arithmetic problems and reading comprehension questions similar to those in the college entrance examination. The researchers divided the subjects into two groups. One group answered the questions independently throughout the process, while the other group could use the GPT - 5 chatbot in the sidebar for assistance. Then, the researchers suddenly removed the artificial intelligence tool and asked both groups to solve three identical questions.
After losing the AI assistance, the performance of the group that had used the robot significantly deteriorated; the proportion of skipping difficult questions was about twice that of the group that had answered the questions independently throughout the process.
In the past, people thought that skill degradation was a slow process: Long-term dependence on AI would lead to a gradual loss of ability over several months, and it would be too late to recover by the time they noticed. However, this research has overturned this perception: The decline in thinking ability can occur in a single use. Just 10 to 15 minutes of AI assistance is enough to change people's answering level and attitude towards doing things. The weakening of independent thinking ability is not a long - term hidden danger, but an immediate risk right in front of us.
The question - skipping rate is an important indicator for measuring one's attitude towards doing things. It reflects a person's perseverance, tolerance for unknown problems, and psychological expectation of effort and reward. The research team summarized the pattern: AI can instantly give answers. Over time, people will find it extremely difficult to do things without the auxiliary tool. People's standard for "how much effort is normal" keeps decreasing, and the brain readjusts its psychological expectation. When facing tasks that require independent thinking, people will instinctively feel uncomfortable and want to back off.
This is a typical boiling frog in warm water effect: The sense of dependence grows unconsciously, just like the water temperature rising slowly, and the frog never notices the danger. The experiment found that those who directly asked AI for the standard answer had the most serious decline in ability; while the subjects who only used AI to find hints and sort out ideas performed basically the same as those who answered the questions independently throughout the process.
It should be noted that the experimental data in this study came from the subjects' self - reports, and the way they used AI was also chosen by themselves. However, the signal conveyed by the data is very clear: The way we use artificial intelligence directly determines the impact it will have on us.
How does the ability of independent thinking gradually decline?
Human cognitive ability has evolved over thousands of years and is originally designed to solve complex problems: to find answers in the unknown, accept uncertainty, persevere in the face of setbacks, and stick to goals. In essence, these abilities are the foundation of human self - awareness and the origin of independent thinking and action.
Like all human body functions, the brain also follows the law of "use it or lose it": Regular exercise makes the mind sharp; if we rely on external things to do everything for us, our abilities will gradually atrophy. The decline of independent thinking ability means that after people rely on tools for a long time and get used to outsourcing thinking tasks, their actual ability and subjective willingness to act, think, and make decisions independently continue to decline. This change stems from the pursuit of convenience and comfort, from what seems to be a rational choice - handing problems over to artificial intelligence, which is faster and more accurate.
Now we are in the era of human - machine collaboration: Collecting information, writing first drafts, calculating data, planning routes, organizing abstracts, and translating texts are mostly done by AI. Humans have gradually become "reviewers", simply browsing the content output by the machine and clicking "confirm" to end the task. Such scenarios can be seen everywhere in offices, classrooms, and families. Every time we hand over thinking to the machine, our own thinking territory shrinks a little.
This change is dangerous not only because it brings inconvenience, but also because people can hardly notice the loss of their own abilities. Abilities weaken bit by bit without any warning. One day, you suddenly find that it has become extremely painful to study a difficult problem, your first reaction when encountering difficulties is to give up, and your psychological standard for "the difficulty of difficult problems" has also become lower and lower unconsciously.
The widening intellectual gap
Artificial intelligence technology is still iterating rapidly, with strong development momentum and continuous financial support. In contrast, the innate wisdom of humans does not receive the same attention and investment. The system for cultivating thinking ability is short of funds, the ways of exercising the brain are not valued, and it is even more difficult to create a social atmosphere that advocates active thinking and in - depth thinking.
In simple terms, we are building more and more sophisticated "external prostheses" on one hand, while allowing our originally healthy limbs to gradually weaken on the other.
This is the most ironic situation in the human - machine era: The tools are becoming more and more powerful, and human dependence on the tools is also getting deeper and deeper. Intelligent tools make the process from asking questions to getting answers unobstructed, but our ability to think and study hard has been wasted. AI originally promised to help humans save time and focus on high - level thinking, but in the end, the ability of high - level thinking has already declined due to long - term idleness.
The ability of artificial intelligence is improving rapidly, while the thinking ability of humans remains stagnant. The gap between the two has become a blind spot that the whole society cannot ignore.
Practical coping rules: Hold on to the ability of independent thinking
Here is a set of action methods, with the first letters of the English words forming the word "AGENCY", to help you regain the ability of independent thinking:
1. Audit
Sort out which mental tasks you no longer try to complete independently. Recognizing the current situation is the first step to change.
2. Grapple
Choose at least one difficult problem every day and study it independently throughout the process. Overcoming difficulties is not inefficient, but a necessary way to maintain mental vitality.
3. Engage
Use AI as a tool for finding ideas, not as a source of standard answers. Ask AI for directions and clues, but the process of solving problems must be done by yourself.
4. Notice
When you are more likely to have the idea of giving up than before, be alert to this signal instead of following your inner thoughts. This discomfort is mostly just an imbalance in psychological expectation, not that you really don't have the ability to complete the task.
5. Calibrate
Regularly put aside AI and independently complete those tasks that you are used to handing over to tools. Observe your own changes. We need to actively maintain our psychological standard for "reasonable effort", otherwise it will keep declining.
6. Your sovereignty
Independent thinking will not be maintained out of thin air. In an environment where convenience is pursued everywhere and there are tools to assist in everything, actively choosing in - depth thinking and insisting on independent research will become your most important habit.
The intellectual gap and the gap in resource investment are objective realities. Now we can still notice the loss of our own abilities and still have a chance to make up for it, but this window period is closing rapidly.
Translator: Teresa