New MIT study suggests that too much AI use could increase cognitive decline

Participants who exclusively used the AI to help write essays showed weaker brain connectivity, lower memory retention and a fading sense of ownership over their work.

The federal government has been diving headfirst into artificial intelligence lately, testing it for use in everything from healthcare to human resources. This is happening as tech companies continue to lobby for the increased deployment of advanced AI tools in government, like agentic or generative AI, and legislators try to weigh the potential negative consequences of doing so. Government is also wrestling with the question of whether or not to put any guardrails around the technology. And into this maelstrom of potential AI pros and cons comes a new study from MIT that might just provide a unique new reason to pump the brakes on AI use, at least a little bit.

The study by MIT’s Media Lab tested the cognitive functions of ...