Generative Writing at the Cost of Cognitive Ability

The spread of knowledge gained speed with the invention of printing machine. Typewriter made writing professional and computer made it personalized. Each leap triggered anxiety first and later empowered us. However, AI with tools such as ChatGPT raised the issue of whether what we are outsourcing is just what we have to write or the process of thinking itself. As AI gains traction in education system, there is research on the hidden cognitive costs of AI-generated writing.

MIT experiment asked the students to write an essay unaided, using a search engine and using a Chatbot. The students wore electro-encephalogram (EEG) to record the activity of the brain. The students who took ChatGPT assistance manifested the least activity of the brain. Their essays were generic and soul-less. They could not own their work later. Unaided writers showed the highest cognitive engagement and had a sense of authorship. This shows that cognitive ability is affected depending on the use of AI to think for us. Apple researchers conducted another study. They endorsed MIT findings. ChatGPT writing mimics human writing and uses statistical pattern-matching. It fails to reason in the face of unfamiliar and complex problems. As LeCun from Facebook puts it, ‘AI does not understand the world, nor does it truly think.’

Additional research elsewhere too confirm these findings. AI tools bring in a decline in creativity, loss of personal voice, and dilute writing confidence. It is delegation of mental work to AI — cognitive offloading. We fail to build the muscles of analysis, synthesis and articulation that education is all about.

Should we ban AI in the school system? Not at all. The issue is how it is used. It could be used for grammar correction, summarization or refinement of writing. It should not replace the original thought. Students should be encouraged to write unaided first. Later they can use AI for editing. The ability to think, research and marshal the ideas should be retained. The NEP also champions critical thinking and creativity. AI must facilitate these and should not eclipse these.