Back in 2008, The Atlantic sparked controversy with a provocative cover story: Is Google Making Us Stupid?

In that 4,000-word essay, later expanded into a book, author Nicholas Carr suggested the answer was yes, arguing that technology such as search engines were worsening Americans’ ability to think deeply and retain knowledge.

At the core of Carr’s concern was the idea that people no longer needed to remember or learn facts when they could instantly look them up online. While there might be some truth to this, search engines still require users to use critical thinking to interpret and contextualize the results.

The July/August 2008 issue of The Atlantic. Wikimedia Foundation.

Fast-forward to today, and an even more profound technological shift is taking place. With the rise of generative AI tools such as ChatGPT, internet users aren’t just outsourcing memory – they may be outsourcing thinking itself.

Generative AI tools don’t just retrieve information; they can create, analyze and summarize it. This represents a fundamental shift: Arguably, generative AI is the first technology that could replace human thinking and creativity.

That raises a critical question: Is ChatGPT making us stupid?

As a professor of information systems who’s been working with AI for more than two decades, I’ve watched this transformation firsthand. And as many people increasingly delegate cognitive tasks to AI, I think it’s worth considering what exactly........

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