{"id":401884,"date":"2026-04-16T16:34:25","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T16:34:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/401884\/"},"modified":"2026-04-16T16:34:25","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T16:34:25","slug":"using-ai-for-basic-tasks-damages-a-persons-intellect-in-just-10-minutes-study-shows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/401884\/","title":{"rendered":"Using AI for basic tasks damages a person\u2019s intellect in just 10 minutes, study shows"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n         Published on<br \/>\n            16\/04\/2026 &#8211; 16:05 GMT+2\n            <\/p>\n<p>Using artificial intelligence for basic cognitive tasks can damage a person\u2019s intellectual ability after just 10 minutes, a new study showed.<\/p>\n<p>          <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"c-ad__placeholder__logo\" src=\"https:\/\/static.euronews.com\/website\/images\/logos\/logo-euronews-stacked-outlined-72x72-grey-9.svg\" width=\"72\" height=\"72\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><br \/>\n          ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p>          <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"c-ad__placeholder__logo\" src=\"https:\/\/static.euronews.com\/website\/images\/logos\/logo-euronews-stacked-outlined-72x72-grey-9.svg\" width=\"72\" height=\"72\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><br \/>\n          ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p>The preprint <a href=\"https:\/\/arxiv.org\/pdf\/2604.04721\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\">study<\/a> asked 1,200 people to complete either 15 fraction math problems or eight basic reading comprehension tasks, with and without AI.<\/p>\n<p>In both experiments, the AI group had access to the technology for most questions but had to answer a few without it.\u200b<\/p>\n<p>Those in the AI group were more likely to solve problems correctly at first, but when AI was removed, they got more questions wrong or skipped them entirely.<\/p>\n<p>The participants were also less likely to persist with finishing the problems, which the researchers said is one of the most important ways to acquire a skill.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf such effects accumulate over months and years of AI use, we may end up creating a generation of learners who have lost the disposition to struggle productively without technological support,\u201d the report noted.<\/p>\n<p>The report follows another<a href=\"https:\/\/www.euronews.com\/next\/2025\/06\/21\/using-ai-bots-like-chatgptcould-be-causing-cognitive-decline-new-study-shows\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> study<\/a> from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) that showed those using OpenAI\u2019s ChatGPT to write essays often did not recall or recognise their writing.<\/p>\n<p>That study said AI causes a phenomenon called \u201ccognitive debt,\u201d which decreases learning outcomes over time.<\/p>\n<p>The \u2018boiling frog\u2019 effect<\/p>\n<p>People are likely to give up after using AI because they expect immediate answers and deny them the experience of working through challenges on their own, the study found.\u200b<\/p>\n<p>The use of AI will also change the perception of how long it should take a human to complete the task successfully, and, as a result, unaided work feels like more effort, it said.<\/p>\n<p>The technology also removes the \u201cproductive struggle\u201d that people develop when solving problems, making it more difficult to maintain that knowledge.<\/p>\n<p>While this seems small at first, it could cause long-term challenges over the years, similar to the \u201cboiling frog\u201d effect, where \u201ceach incremental act feels costless, until the cumulative effect becomes overwhelming to address,\u201d they wrote.<\/p>\n<p>The researchers suggest that AI be built with long-term objectives in mind, which means it could know when not to help a user, similar to a good mentor, who offers guidance to a struggling student but will not solve the problem for them. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Published on 16\/04\/2026 &#8211; 16:05 GMT+2 Using artificial intelligence for basic cognitive tasks can damage a person\u2019s intellectual&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":401885,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[220,218,219,61,60,413,80],"class_list":{"0":"post-401884","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-artificial-intelligence","8":"tag-ai","9":"tag-artificial-intelligence","10":"tag-artificialintelligence","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-ireland","13":"tag-psychology","14":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401884","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=401884"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401884\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/401885"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=401884"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=401884"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=401884"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}