A new study by the MIT Media Lab has found that using tools like ChatGPT to write essays may actually make you less engaged and less sharp over time. The research shows that students who leaned heavily on AI-generated content had reduced brain activity, weaker memory, and less learning compared to those who wrote essays on their own.

The experiment: Three groups, three approaches

In the study, 54 students were divided into three groups. One group used ChatGPT, the second used Google, and the third wrote without any outside help. While writing, their brain activity was monitored using EEG (electroencephalogram) scans.

The findings were published in a paper titled “Your Brain on ChatGPT.”

Over a period of four months, researchers tracked the performance and brain response of the students. The results showed a clear difference in how the brain behaved depending on the method used to write.

"Measurable impact" on AI users

According to the researchers, there was a "measurable impact" on students who used ChatGPT. While their essays may have looked more polished at first, they performed worse than the other two groups across all areas: brain activity, writing quality, and memory.

“Performed worse than their counterparts in the brain-only group at all levels: neural, linguistic, scoring across a four-month period,” the study said.

Students in the AI group also struggled to remember what they had written, or even who they quoted. Because the essays were mostly generated by ChatGPT, they felt little to no ownership over their work.

Students who used Google to help write their essays had moderate brain activity. Their engagement wasn’t as low as the ChatGPT group, but not as high as the group that worked independently.

The group that wrote essays without any assistance had the highest brain activity, used more original ideas, and showed better performance across all categories.

Interestingly, when this third group was later asked to use ChatGPT to write another essay, their brain activity still stayed high. This may be because they used the tool as a helper, not a replacement for thinking.

In contrast, the original ChatGPT group continued to show declining brain activity even when they tried writing without AI afterward.

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