Will A.I. Make Your Brain Lazy? Here’s What the New Research Actually Shows

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philb2

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https://www.nytimes.com/interactive...7366&user_id=c383821527c441214d07ce6e4a6ba12a

In July, professors at Middlebury College released a preprint study in which more than 200 undergraduates were asked to write an essay and take a proctored multiple-choice test.

One group of students had access to A.I. to research a topic and write the essay. The other group didn’t. The researchers found that the A.I.-enabled group wrote longer and slightly higher-quality essays. Their test scores were also higher.

A week later, the participants returned for a similar test, but now both groups worked unassisted. The authors broke down the students’ second-round performance based on how A.I. was used in the first round.
 
This goes into devices in general as more studies showing students numbers dropping more and more since devices were allowed in classrooms, reading, critical thinking and other basic skills all people should have. Why some U.S States / school boards are pushing to remove devices entirely.

Now AI amplifies it even more....

I always remember back in school if someone got caught cheating, the response was always "You are only cheating yourself" because later in life, you are going to find out the hard way that cheating your way through schools, tests,certificates, what ever, is going to bite you in the butt one day.

AI is doing the same thing, feeding people info, they do not question it, or think beyond just copying said response out to use where ever.
 
philb2 said:
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive...7366&user_id=c383821527c441214d07ce6e4a6ba12a

In July, professors at Middlebury College released a preprint study in which more than 200 undergraduates were asked to write an essay and take a proctored multiple-choice test.

One group of students had access to A.I. to research a topic and write the essay. The other group didn’t. The researchers found that the A.I.-enabled group wrote longer and slightly higher-quality essays. Their test scores were also higher.

A week later, the participants returned for a similar test, but now both groups worked unassisted. The authors broke down the students’ second-round performance based on how A.I. was used in the first round.
Click to expand...
Students who used AI to explain concepts, brainstorm, or clarify ideas performed better and retained more than students who did not use AI at all.
 
I think it depends on how you use AI, not AI itself.
Using it to understand a topic can actually help you learn faster.
The problem starts when people stop thinking and just copy the answer.
 
philb2 said:
A week later, the participants returned for a similar test, but now both groups worked unassisted. The authors broke down the students’ second-round performance based on how A.I. was used in the first round.
Click to expand...
And ? what was the result ?

Rondph said:
Students who used AI to explain concepts, brainstorm, or clarify ideas performed better and retained more than students who did not use AI at all.
Click to expand...
A that surprising
 
When I was a young man in the mid 90's looking to teach myself coding, I saw a lot of commentators saying don't get into scripting languages because they are a bad thing because the coder doesn't learn the fundamentals of what's involved in writing code when the compiler does all the clean up for you. Scripting languages would make you lazy. Today, most "coders" are using scripting languages.

Kids today have no idea what autoexec.bat or IRQ's or DMA's or base memory or HiMem is.....but they play more advanced games today than I did back in the day....despite modern kids having less intimate knowledge of how the computer works. But back then I had to know what that stuff was if I wanted to play a game. Now you don't.

Today we all have access to smart phones, and by extension all of the internet. Should we optimize our brains to operate as if we do not have constant access to this pool of knowledge, or should we optimize our brain to only have small segments of knowledge that point to much larger knowledge?

I feel like at some point the human brain is going to be expected to contain an overwhelming amount of information....possible we might even be at that point now with the constant onslaught of random information coming out of social media. As today's new outrage story comes in, does my brain silently erase that great and memorable lunch I had with a friend back in 2002? I'll never know!

For years I have mentally not committed various programming syntax to memory because I knew I could type in a couple keywords in google and 10 seconds on stack overflow would have the answer. I leverage the answer being committed into the collective memory of the world rather than my personal memory. Now I that I dabble with A.I. models at work, I find it to be even less strenuous. Just tell it what you want and give example data input and it writes the entire code block for you. Now I just need to commit a general concept to memory. Leveraging more community memory instead of using my own.
 
LukeTbk said:
And ? what was the result ?


A that surprising
Click to expand...
Those who used AI as a tutor improved over those who didn't use AI at all, even in long term tests. Those who used AI as a shortcut did better initially, did significantly worse later than all groups.
Those who used AI as a tutor had roughly the same brain activity as those who didn't use AI at all, both long and short term. Those who used AI as a shortcut had significantly decreased brain activity, and even after several months of avoiding AI, their brain activity didn't improve. And those who didn't use AI and then several months later, did use AI, did not see a drop in brain activity.

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Anyway, my personal opinion is that this is probably why companies are hiring, but they're looking for software developers who've had years of experience without it, as they can benefit from AI. But with the junior developers, there's no good news here.

This can probably be applied outside of school to stuff like screens in school as well. It's like calculators. We use them, we benefit from them, but a lot of that comes down to the fact that when we were in elementary school, we didn't use calculators to learn arithmetic. But lately we've been shortcutting education from the very start. And probably why Gen Z and beyond are the first generations to be less intelligent than their parents.

The issue here with learning Computer Science though, is that you don't learn it in elementary school, you tend to start off with it in college. With stuff like math, being taught in elementary school, they don't know any better and will pretty much do what their teachers tell them and not use devices. By college though, you're pretty much aware of shortcuts and the short-term benefits that shortcuts can bring.
 
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The difference between calculators and AI is you still need to know math to use a calculator, at least the basics. The calculator won't tell you how to find the area of a circle, for instance.

AI will (if you ask). You do have to know what and how to ask these questions, so it's not like it's an entirely brainless activity. But AI can be a very substantial crutch, and not always a helpful one.

Just like with calculators, we cannot abandon teaching the basics and expect everything to be fine.
 
Nobu said:
The difference between calculators and AI is you still need to know math to use a calculator, at least the basics. The calculator won't tell you how to find the area of a circle, for instance.

AI will (if you ask). You do have to know what and how to ask these questions, so it's not like it's an entirely brainless activity. But AI can be a very substantial crutch, and not always a helpful one.

Just like with calculators, we cannot abandon teaching the basics and expect everything to be fine.
Click to expand...
1791405273808.png
 
No different than having someone do your homework without explaining how to do it. You either need a proactive person to explain it, the student needs to ask the how-to and practice, or a combination of both with the latter probably being the preferred. I've been telling multiple kids in the family to not just treat AI like an answer vending machine but to have it show you how to work the problem in whatever detail you need to make sure they understand it to then practice it themselves so that it sticks. Eyes really open up when I ask them: "Why are you not taking advantage of a 24/7 personal tutor who can explain a problem with proof and concepts that pops in your head at 3am?"
 
So, real world. That is, somebody around before the Internet and, now post "Google".

How did we survive pre-Google? Reading, memorization and "doing things with that knowledge" (so we would never forget it).

Back in the ancient times, the concept of "use it, or lose it" was a thing. That is, especially in tech, but other skills as well, if you don't "practice", you lose the skill and might have to re-learn it. But, as people continued to do their practice, after many many hours, they become experts and then, the skill becomes nearly permanent. I'm an old Unix guy, I think in "shell script" (no googling necessary).

I'd argue what I just said will not resonate. So, how about driving a car (though even this is becoming less). After you've driven a car enough, you become "an expert" and driving that car becomes trivial (though, oddly accidents, because of their jarring nature, can actually cause second guessing of expert skill... for a bit).

My point, if I can leave "car" behind and talk in terms of heavier things that require continual brain use, you "use it, or lose it".

Now, on to "today". In today's Google+ world, how many people actually possess (like second nature) expert skills, vs. those that pretty much depend upon Google daily? I'm simply pointing out the days of memorization and refresh of that memory through constant use.... it's not there (at least not for most), not anymore.

The idea that AI won't follow the same path, to the point of "did you Google for that?" (boomer-Googler) or did you simply direct AI to do it all for you? Will become the new normal. And thus, just as with the web search Internet revolution, I expect equal if not more dramatic impact to our internal/saved knowledge. "Just let AI do it."

Those at the forefront of the AI revolution have pretty much already come that conclusion and aren't afraid to say it out loud, and are encouraging that future for mankind.

"Is knowing how to do long division important?" (I think you're already playing the video in your head, but maybe not for long, as it too will probably be kicked out of your brain as well)

https://endlessnow.com/ten/Video/ShipItAndPray.mp4 (words and music by AI)
 
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