Generative AI is Ruining Our Ability to Think for Ourselves

ChatGPT has taken college classrooms by storm. Its impact is everywhere — in group projects, our friends’ work and maybe even our own essays. While it may be tempting to let AI do the heavy lifting, we are only cheating ourselves. Our brains were created for thinking, and it should not be outsourced to AI models that are often biased and wrong.

AI has existed for decades in the form of Turnitin, Grammarly and similar platforms, but ChatGPT — released to the public in 2022 — is a revolutionary AI platform. ChatGPT falls into the category of large language models (LLMs), which are AI systems that are able to understand and generate natural language.

Unlike previous models of AI, ChatGPT can use natural language to formulate complex responses. “Earlier applications of AI have not been quite as disruptive because they did not involve natural language,” said Bryce Hughes, an adult and higher education associate professor.

Today, many college students use ChatGPT to complete assignments, engage in discussion posts and study for tests. I have noticed that many of my professors allow — or even encourage — the use of AI in their classrooms.

College is a place where students come to learn, grow and challenge themselves. Using AI prevents us from building our critical thinking skills, which defeats the purpose of us being here. AI platforms like ChatGPT do not belong in college classrooms — or any learning space for that matter.

“You come to college to become more creative, to grow as a person and to exercise your critical thinking skills,” said early childhood education major Daisy Fuzesy. “If you're not exercising your critical thinking skills, you are damaging your own growth.”

“People need to be able to synthesize their own ideas and craft their own arguments and analyses, and using AI to shortcut the process of engaging with the material you’re learning is damaging your ability to critically think,” said Kaden Pilon, a social studies education major.

When a person relies heavily on AI to do their research, assignments and thinking, they are shortchanging their learning and overall development.

According to a recent study by MIT, people who consistently relied on ChatGPT showed lower brain engagement and struggled to produce original thoughts.

“I'm not going to say every student should love every assignment they have to complete for class, but I would hope every student cares how they come across to their professors and cares to spend the time to learn material and form some kind of response to it,” Hughes said.

Creative writing professor Cassia Hameline said that she likes to think of creativity and critical thinking as muscles — the more we use those skills, the stronger they get.

“If we are relying on AI too much and allowing it to think for us, our creativity and critical thinking muscles are going to get really weak,” Hameline said.

College assignments are designed to be challenging and help students form new neural connections. Students who are using ChatGPT to write and think for them are not learning their class material, and as a result, are not gaining the knowledge they need to succeed in their careers.

The use of generative AI is damaging to students’ skills not only as academics, but as human beings navigating the modern world. It is incredibly important that people learn how to conduct their own research and recognize misinformation and propaganda, especially in a time when people have unlimited access to information.

History teaching major Caleb Jackson said that because we are so overwhelmed with information, we absorb everything like a sponge. “By using AI, people are being told how to think instead of learning how to think for themselves,” Jackson said.

Now more than ever, we need to think for ourselves. Not everything on the internet is reliable, and the same applies to content generated by ChatGPT. Start using your own brain before your ability to think for yourself is damaged forever.