Popular AI platforms like ChatGPT, Grok, or Copilot may or may not accurately summarize this article for you. Unfortunately for you, if you are the type of person to do this a lot, chances are you’re hemorrhaging IQ points – at least according to several new studies released in the past month.

What started as a solo study in the summer of 2024 recording cognitive decline from frequent users of ChatGPT has since been expanded upon in a series of studies conducted by MIT. It’s worse than previously thought – and is applicable to other AI chat services, such as X’s Grok.

This most recent study was published by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Media Lab. It analyzed students writing essays with the help of AI chat services, contrasting them to a second group of students who relied only on search browsers, versus a third group who didn’t use tools at all.

The study found significantly lower levels of brain activity in the heads of the people who used ChatGPT.

This is not too surprising, considering they were outsourcing their thinking to the chatbot. This comes on the heels of a study posted at PsyPost a year ago that found ChatGPT to be linked with memory loss and even confusion after extended use.

It should be noted the study was conducted on people aged 18-39, so it wasn’t just college students being studied-as some sources had implied. What makes all of this so grim is an entire generation of kids are being taught to rely on AI for even the smallest of tasks.

This has contributed to what is known as “brainrot,” a term used to describe those with damaged attention spans and increased levels of anxiety caused by social-media addiction.

If services like ChatGPT and Grok are shown to cause reduced brain activity in the head of a 39-year adult who wasn’t even raised with these tools, it’s easy to imagine how much more damaging the tools could be affecting children, whose brains are still developing.

The students who did not use AI in the study would discover the correct answers to the questions at a much higher rate than the ones relying on AI. This is not just because of AI “hallucinations,” wherein the AI would give a hilariously wrong answer to a question.

While this is something that has increased nearly 5000% since 2023 – it’s also because when the AI provides the correct answer, the student doesn’t reach the conclusion through their own research. This can also lead to students being less liking to internalize the answer when it comes time to review.

This is Niche Gamer Tech. In this column, we regularly cover tech and things related to the tech industry. Please leave feedback and let us know if there’s tech or a story you want us to cover! Editor’s Note: Featured image via Low Budget Stories