The one secret to using genAI to boost your brain

We’ve got a big problem on our hands. The public is using generative AI (genAI) to write, create, and think. But the brain is a use-it-or-lose-it organ — and we’re starting to lose it. 

That doesn’t have to happen to you. Here’s what you need to know about genAI-related brain rot, and the one approach that lets you take advantage of the technology while retaining and even enhancing your own natural intelligence. 

But first, let’s look at what science says about genAI brain rot.

Creativity

Research published by Carnegie Mellon University this month found that groups that turned to Google Search came up with fewer creative ideas during brainstorming sessions compared to groups without access to Google Search. Not only did each Google Search group come up with the same ideas as the other Search groups, they also presented them in the same order, suggesting that the search results replaced their actual creativity. 

The researchers called this a “fixation effect.” When people see a few examples, they tend to get stuck on those and struggle to think beyond them. For example, if you see “butter” and “jam” as things you can spread, you’re more likely to think of other foods and less likely to think of “rumors” or “disease.”

Earlier this year, The Journal of Creative Behavior published a study called “Am I Still Creative? The Effect of Artificial Intelligence on Creative Self-Beliefs.” That study looked at the difference between how creative people think they are in general and how creative they feel when working with AI. The researchers focused on “creative self-beliefs,” which means a person’s confidence in their own creative ability — they wanted to know whether using AI changes this confidence, and if so, how. 

The study found that most people felt less creative with genAI than without it. If someone already doubted their own creative skills, using it made them feel even less sure. Even people who usually felt very creative did not always feel that way when they used genAI. Trust in the technology helped, but it did not erase the feeling of lost creativity. People who saw genAI as a helpful tool sometimes felt more confident, but if they thought it was taking over, their sense of creativity dropped.

Importantly, the study also found that people who feel sure of their own creativity tend to achieve more in creative work. But this self-confidence does not always help when they use genAI.

Brain rot

A new study from MIT’s Media Lab offers a rare glimpse inside the brain during the act of writing, with and without AI assistance. The team recruited 54 college students from the Boston area and had them write short essays under three conditions: 1) unaided, 2) using a search engine, or 3) with OpenAI’s GPT-4o chatbot. 

Each participant wore an EEG cap to track real-time brain activity. The experiment ran for four months, with each student writing three essays, and a fourth session where some swapped their assigned method.

Unfortunately, the results were exactly what you might expect. Students who wrote their essays without any outside help showed the highest brain activity, especially in regions tied to memory, creativity, and semantic processing. Those who used search engines showed less activity but still engaged their brains more than the group using the AI chatbot. The ChatGPT group showed the lowest brain activity of all, with up to a 55% drop in neural connectivity compared to the unaided group, as measured by a method called Dynamic Directed Transfer Function. (This technique tracks how information moves across different parts of the brain and is considered a good marker for executive function, attention, and semantic processing.)

It gets worse. When researchers asked students to recall or summarize what they had written, the genAI-assisted group remembered less and felt less ownership of their work. In the final session, when students who had used the tech were suddenly asked to write without it, their performance and brain engagement lagged behind those who had started out unaided. 

Researchers found that this “cognitive offloading” effect means users rely on genAI for tasks they would otherwise perform themselves, potentially undermining their own mental capabilities and creativity.

On the other hand, students who switched from brain-only to genAI showed a jump in brain connectivity when allowed to use the tool, but only when they already understood the topic.

The researchers said that the timing and context of genAI use matter. Using it after you’ve already engaged deeply with a topic can be helpful. But letting the tools do the heavy lifting from the start appears to short-circuit the learning process. 

The study’s bottom line: there’s a real tradeoff between the convenience of external support and the lasting benefits of internal effort.

Groupthink

Another risk from an over-reliance on genAI and search is originality. GenAI tools are actually changing how we think, feel, and act. Tools always shape our minds, from the typewriter to the PC. 

Social media platforms like TikTok, Facebook, and Instagram use AI to decide what we see. Their algorithms pick content based on what keeps us engaged. This often means we get more of what we already like or believe. Over time, this narrows our interests and beliefs. (Psychologists call this “preference crystallization.”)

Our knowledge of and perspective on the world becomes less our own and more what the algorithms feed us. They do this by showing us content that triggers strong feelings — anger, joy, fear. Instead of feeling a full range of emotions, we bounce between extremes. Researchers call this “emotional dysregulation.” The constant flood of attention-grabbing posts can make it hard to focus or feel calm.

AI algorithms on social grab our attention with endless new content. It shapes how we learn from others by controlling what social behaviors we see online. It even changes how we remember things, since we now rely on AI to store and recall information for us.

A similar effect happens when people use genAI-based chatbots unskillfully. 

When you ask chatbots like ChatGPT or Google Gemini a question, you get the most common answer from what people wrote online, a kind of consensus or average. When millions or billions of people are turning to chatbots for answers, you can see how that can become a social media-like echo chamber devoid of original thought.

The secret to brain-boosting use of AI

To elevate both the quality of your work and the performance of your mind, begin by crafting your paper, email, or post entirely on your own, without any assistance from genAI tools. Only after you have thoroughly explored a topic and pushed your own capabilities should you turn to chatbots, using them as a catalyst to further enhance your output, generate new ideas, and refine your results.

And don’t get your initial information from social media or those chatbots. Learn by reading high-quality books and magazine articles; only after that traditional learning should you expose your mind to the same subjects on social or chatbots. 

Brainpower and creativity are a use-it-or-lose-it proposition. So, challenge yourself and then —  and only then — turn to genAI to learn just a little bit more. Always turn to technology at the end, never the beginning, of any endeavor. The one secret to using genAI to boost your brain – ComputerworldRead More