Archive · 25 Jul 2025
ChatGPT and Intelligence: Are We Getting Smarter or Stupider?
ChatGPT and similar AI tools can create and analyze information, which is a big change.
Some worry that relying on AI for thinking might make us less critical thinkers, like when you let someone else do your homework.
But, when we use AI to help us think and learn, it can make us smarter.
The key is to use AI as a tool to help us, not to replace our own thinking.
This means we must ask questions, explore multiple viewpoints, and deepen our understanding.
The future is about using AI to work together to make new and better things.
Article discusses the impact of generative AI, like ChatGPT, on human intelligence.
Author, an AI professor, considers whether these tools are making people less intelligent.
The convenience of AI may weaken critical thinking and problem-solving skills.
Using AI uncritically could lead to intellectual complacency and reliance on AI.
The augmented approach to AI can expand brainpower and produce collaborative results.
- Who
- Aaron French, Assistant Professor of Information Systems, and internet users.
- What
- An examination of the impact of generative AI tools like ChatGPT on human intelligence and cognitive abilities.
- When
- The discussion is set in the present, in the context of the rise of generative AI.
- Where
- N/A
- Why
- To consider what's being gained and lost as people increasingly delegate cognitive tasks to AI.
Negative Impact
Positive Impact
Cognitive Impact
Negative Impact
Relying heavily on AI may weaken critical thinking, problem-solving, and deep engagement with information.
Positive Impact
AI can stimulate curiosity, generate ideas, clarify complex topics, and provoke intellectual dialogue.
Using AI
Negative Impact
AI could lead to intellectual complacency.
Positive Impact
Augmented AI can lead to expanded brainpower.
- Author
- Aaron French, Assistant Professor of Information Systems, Kennesaw State University
- Focus
- Impact of Generative AI on intelligence
- Issue
- Potential for AI to diminish critical thinking skills if used uncritically
- Solution
- Using AI as a tool to support and enhance human intelligence.
- Core Concept
- AI should augment, not replace, human intelligence.