There's yet another study about how bad AI is for our brains

The study

A multi-institution team in the US and UK ran experiments that suggest AI help is a double-edged sword. It has been reported that researchers asked hundreds of participants to solve fraction problems and reading-comprehension questions; about half were given a GPT-5–based chatbot for part of the test and then had access cut off. The headline finding: immediate performance improved with AI, but persistence and independent performance plunged once the bot was removed. “Once the AI is taken away from people, it’s not that people are just giving wrong answers. They’re also not willing to try without AI,” coauthor Rachit Dubey told Futurism.

Why it matters

So what’s the emotional gut-punch here? The concern isn’t just a few wrong answers — it’s a dent in motivation. The paper argues that short bursts of AI assistance can create dependence, eroding the grit and persistence that drive long-term learning and creativity. Think of it as a cognitive rust: handy in the short term, corrosive over time. Are we trading short-term wins for long-term atrophy? That’s the worry; it feels uncomfortably like handing someone a power tool before teaching them how to hold it.

Caveats and context

There are important caveats. The paper has not yet been peer-reviewed, and it has been reported that the only bright spot was people who used AI for hints rather than turnkey answers — those users fared better when the bot disappeared. Other recent work, it has been reported, links heavy AI reliance to fatigue at work (the so-called “AI brain fry”) and to worse test outcomes in some educational studies. None of this is destiny, but it raises a practical question for employers, teachers and toolmakers: how do you deploy assistance that helps today without hollowing out tomorrow?

Sources: engadget.com, Hacker News