In the modern age, artificial intelligence (AI) is revolutionizing how we live, work, and think – sometimes in ways we don’t fully understand or anticipate. In newsrooms, classrooms, boardrooms, and even bedrooms, tools like ChatGPT and other large language models (LLMs) are rapidly becoming standard companions for generating text, conducting research, summarizing content, and assisting in communication. But as we embrace these tools for convenience and productivity, there is growing concern among educators, journalists, editors, and cognitive scientists that we are trading long-term intellectual development for short-term efficiency.

As a news editor, one of the most distressing observations has been the normalization of copying and pasting AI-generated content by young journalists and writers. Attempts to explain the dangers of this trend – especially how it undermines the craft of writing, critical thinking, and authentic reporting – often fall on deaf ears. The allure of AI is simply too strong: its speed, its polish, and its apparent coherence often overshadow the deeper value of struggling through a thought or refining an idea through personal reflection and effort.

This concern is not isolated to journalism. A growing body of research across educational and corporate environments points to an overreliance on writing tools as a silent threat to cognitive growth and intellectual independence. The fear is not that AI tools are inherently bad, but that their habitual use in place of human thinking – rather than in support of it – is setting the stage for diminished creativity, shallow learning, and a weakening of our core mental faculties.

One recent study by researchers at the........

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