Last January, British journalist Alex Preston submitted a review of Jean-Baptiste Andrea’s novel Her Watch to New York Timeswhich has been refined with the help of an artificial intelligence (AI) tool. Widget Borrowed Phrases from A Guardian A review of the same book by Christobel Kent, published four months earlier. Preston doesn’t notice this, but the reader does. After investigation, The times Cut ties with him permanently.
The use of artificial intelligence in writing is a concern Researchers have tried to measure it. What happens when humans outsource their AI thinking? The results show that Authenticity is compromisedAnd the brain is scanning now suggests Loss of cognitive function itself.
Before 2022, writing an essay meant struggling through incomplete ideas, bad starts, and rewrites. Today, one can start and finish typing a few prompts in ChatGPT, which launched in November 2022. The results come back quickly and look clear. After review, the essay will be ready for submission.
Researchers are starting to realize all the efficiency gains promised by AI, summaries, crafted emails, and instant answers. documentation Effects on the brain when it is not asked to do heavy lifting.
According to According to a 2025 study by Wuhan University in China, habitual reliance on AI tools can impair critical thinking, erode memory, and suppress neural activity on which learning depends, raising the question of whether and to what extent AI is changing the way we think.
What brain scans show
In 2025 A study conducted at the Media Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).The researchers divided 54 students from five Boston-area universities into three groups: a group that used ChatGPT to write articles, a group that used traditional search engines, and a group that worked entirely without technological assistance.
Over the course of four months, all participants wore electroencephalography (EEG) headsets, which are non-invasive electrodes attached to the scalp that record the brain’s electrical activity. Those who used AI exclusively showed poorer brain connectivity, decreased memory retention, and a diminished sense of ownership over their work.
The ChatGPT group showed the least amount of brainwave activity, with cognitive function declining over time in key areas of their brains. Remarkably, 83 percent Of the students in this group they were unable to recall the main points of their own essays, and none were able to provide accurate quotations from their papers. According to In the study, participants in the ChatGPT group performed worse than their counterparts in the brain-only group at the neural, linguistic, and recording levels.
Participants who relied on AI assistants showed significantly less activity in the prefrontal cortex, an area heavily involved in decision-making and critical thinking, compared to those who used Google or no writing assistance at all.
The persistence of MIT’s findings is troubling because even after participants stopped using ChatGPT, they showed slowed brain activity, suggesting that once the brain starts outsourcing thinking, it does not easily regain control.
The MIT study did not arise in a vacuum.
Another 2025 study was conducted by professor and corporate strategist Michael Gerlich Found Heavy reliance on AI tools may gradually erode users’ critical thinking skills, at a measurable cognitive cost.
Wider research has also been conducted in the field of digital technology It is shown Frequent GPS use may reduce hippocampal activity, affecting navigation and spatial memory, according to a 2020 study by McGill University in Canada.
Another study, 2021, published in the journal Frontiers in Psychiatry, reveals Frequent mobile phone use has been linked to changes in brain anatomy, including loss of gray matter, the cell bodies of neurons responsible for processing information, in areas associated with memory and executive function. In some ways, AI takes this further by doing the work itself.
It is a challenge that Egypt cannot ignore
The risks are particularly high in countries that invest heavily in AI education.
Egyptian Minister of Education Announce In October 2024, artificial intelligence and programming will become core subjects for first-year secondary school students, as part of an initiative called Gateway to Advanced Technologies and Education (GATE), which aims to equip more than 25 million students in the country with digital skills.
The Supreme Council of Universities in Egypt He follows In September 2025 with the country’s first regulatory guide for the use of AI in higher education, calling for the integration of AI ethics into university curricula and the training of faculty and students in responsible use. That evidence is considered necessary at all reflects the magnitude of the concern.
A cross-sectional study conducted by Zagazig University in 2024 on 423 medical students in 10 Egyptian universities. Found Most of them were already using generative AI to check grammar, complete assignments and homework, and conduct research. The widespread use and advocacy of AI does not fit easily with the growing evidence of the cognitive losses of AI.
While the researchers are not calling for the rejection of artificial intelligence, the MIT study Recommended New guardrails, such as interactive prompts that require users to engage more deeply with AI outputs, and hybrid models that alternate between AI assistance and autonomous problem solving.
The difference in the end is between using artificial intelligence as an assistant that supports thinking and using it as an alternative that replaces it. As EEG data shows, the brain notices the difference, even when humans don’t.