Dr Brian W Stone from Boise State University discusses the downsides of letting an AI model do the work of learning for you. As a cognitive psychologist who has studied how college students are using AI, I have found that my field offers valuable guidance for identifying when AI can be a brain booster and when it risks becoming a brain drain. Struggle, friction and mental effort are crucial to the cognitive work of learning, remembering and strengthening connections in the brain. In another study, students using AI to revise their essays scored higher than those revising without AI, often by simply copying and pasting sentences from ChatGPT. For example, one study found high school students reviewing math with ChatGPT performed worse than students who didn’t use AI.