Overuse of ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini could trigger a dementia crisis, experts say

Artificial Intelligence tools, such as ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini, could be pushing a vast chunk of humans towards dementia. According to experts, "cognitive offloading", when things that require mental work are delegated to AI, can damage the brain. Research has shown that repetitive learning, carrying out mental tasks, solving puzzles, and forcing the brain to analyse and process information are crucial to maintaining the brain’s neuroplasticity, that is, its ability to keep forming new connections between nerves. However, when the brain does not get this exercise, its health starts declining.

A study in January by Simone Rossi, a professor of neurology at the University of Siena in Italy, stated that brain functions are severely impacted when humans over-rely on AI, even for simple tasks like drafting an email. Rossi said, that “passive, uncritical reliance on AI may weaken that activity-dependent plasticity and erode human cognition.”

ChatGPT students couldn't recall anything they wrote just days later

Research scientist Nataliya Kosmyna at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology was shocked when her students could not recollect what they had written in their papers days after submitting them. She experimented with three groups of students, who were instructed to write an essay. One group could use AI, the second relied on Google search, and the third relied on lectures and books.

Brain scans of the last group showed the most activity in many parts of the brain. Those using the Google search engine had high levels of activity in parts linked to visual simulation. The group using ChatGPT had 55 per cent lower brain activity than the non-technology group. The students also couldn't recall anything from the paper.

Recently, a professor from Brown University in the US talked about how the students scored above average in the midterms that he permitted to be taken from home. But when the finals were announced in person, many of them dropped, three scored zeros, and only two were near their midterm score.

Not putting in the effort to understand a topic, especially a technical one, has been shown in studies to affect the brain, since learning a topic for longer creates long-term memory. Barbara Sahakian, a professor of clinical neuropsychology at Cambridge University, has predicted that it is "highly likely" that widespread AI use will lead to more cases of dementia, as quoted by the Daily Mail. "You have to drive those neural circuits in the brain to keep it working for longer and reduce the risk of dementia," she says.