One study compares what AI does to your ability to think to boiled frog syndrome. The frog does not come out well

There are two things that the technology industry is pushing hard. On the one hand, short videos. The TikTok format ‘broke’ it a few years ago to the point that platforms like Instagram or YouTube jumped headlong into copying them. On the other hand, AI. Everything must have AI, and now a chatbot He must be our assistant at all times. In parallel, every time more studies appear that point to something disturbing.

That, perhaps, our brain is eroding.

In short. Months ago, a study pointed out that chatbots cause cognitive surrender, another that makes us lazy and there is even one from Microsoft itself pointing in the same direction. One of the last is the elaborated by researchers from MIT, the University of California, Oxford, and Carnegie Mellon titled “AI Assistance Reduces Persistence and Harms Independent Performance.”

To test the hypothesis, they conducted three experiments in which they let part of the participants access a bot based on GPT-5 and, after ten minutes, they cut off that access. Before the results, the tests:

• Equation Test – 350 people had to solve those problems.
• Qlogic test – 670 people had to take a mathematical test, but of logical reasoning in this case.
• Reading comprehension test – 200 participants who had to analyze a text and complete a brief reading comprehension series.

We are so-so. As we say, part of the sample had access to that bot that was deactivated in the middle of the ‘exam’, and the result was the same in all three tests. As the researchers point out, when access to AI is interrupted, not only does the participants’ performance drop, but also their perseverance.

In statements to the magazine Futurismone of the researchers points out that “once we take away the AI, it is not just that they make mistakes when giving the answer, it is that they are not willing to try either.” There was a distinction between AI users:

• Those who wanted the easy answer were the quickest to lose interest in attempting the task when they no longer had access to the tool.
• Those who asked for explanations or not to “cheat” directly had better results because some did try to continue with the task.

The boiled frog. That’s where the analogy of the boiled frog that applies so well to this situation. The premise is that if we put a frog in a saucepan of boiling water, the frog will jump as soon as it senses danger. However, if we put the frog in the saucepan with warm water and heat it little by little, the animal will cook.

This is not the case because the frog is obviously not stupid and, as long as it cannot be thermoregulateit will jump, but the analogy serves to explain what is happening with AI and those who delegate all tasks to a chatbot so as not to have to think.

Are they making us dumber? Fools, fools… wouldn’t be the word. Rather, we become lazy. We don’t think because, after all, we have AI to do it for us.

Without going into the danger that it poses (because now AIs are free, but tomorrow they may take them away from us at a stroke and turn them into a paid product even for the most basic tasks), the researchers they point out that, if someone uses AI in their daily life for all types of tasks, that person runs the risk of seeing their capabilities erode to the point of creating a dependency on the system because they do not know how to do anything without it.

with head. This study, like many others, is not a criticism of artificial intelligence. As we have once said, it is just another tool, but you have to have criteria when using it. As the researchers point out, performance and interest are not the same in the case of someone who uses AI as a quick response as in the case of someone who just wants a concept explained to them.

What they are clear about is that their observations, apart from those of other studies, should serve as a basis when designing how to integrate chatbots into educational programs. Because we are already seeing that there are countries and institutions that are integrating AI into classrooms and the conclusion of the study is that the analytical and creative thinking that we develop during youth is vital in adulthood.

fast food. I commented at the beginning that short videos were also affecting us and it was not a toast to the Sun. It has a lot to do with the use of AI to obtain easy answers because the bottom line is the same: not having to think. It is something related to the concept of “brain rot” and the trap of dopamine, creating that dependency.

In the case of short videos with slop and empty content, another implication is that little by little they break our attention span. That is why videos on YouTube The aim is to hook you from the beginningthe songs are getting shorter and have choruses that fit into the 15 seconds of an Instagram story, microdramas are the order of the day and when you start watching a movie that is not releasing dopamine, not even five minutes pass until you pick up your phone.

It’s up to us to let the frog stew until it’s cooked… or if it jumps out of the pot.

Images | J. Ronald LeeChatGPT (edited)

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