Spending Just 10 Minutes With AI Can Fry Your Brain, Researchers Find
A study by researchers at Carnegie Mellon, MIT, Oxford, and UCLA found that just 10 minutes of relying on AI assistance significantly reduces users' ability to solve problems independently, with performance dropping by 20% and skip rates doubling when AI support is removed. The decline affected both math and reading comprehension tasks, suggesting a general impairment in critical thinking when users depend on AI for answers rather than hints.
Researchers from Carnegie Mellon, MIT, Oxford, and UCLA conducted a study revealing that using AI assistance for just 10 minutes can impair a person’s ability to think critically and solve problems independently. In the experiment, participants who relied on an AI chatbot powered by OpenAI’s GPT-5 model performed well while receiving help but struggled when the AI was abruptly removed. Their solve rate dropped by about 20% compared to those who worked without AI support throughout, and nearly double the number of questions were skipped. The study tested two skills: fraction-based arithmetic and SAT-style reading comprehension. While AI-assisted participants solved math problems more efficiently during the AI-supported phase, their performance plummeted when the AI was taken away. In reading comprehension, their performance matched the control group until AI was removed, after which accuracy declined and skip rates rose. Those who used AI for direct answers showed the largest performance drops, whereas those who used AI only for hints performed similarly to the control group. The findings suggest that heavy reliance on AI for problem-solving leads to a rapid decline in critical thinking abilities, regardless of the task type. Researchers noted that participants who let AI handle the work lost their capacity to engage independently within minutes. The study aligns with previous research, including a Microsoft study from 2023 on cognitive decline among knowledge workers and a Polish study showing doctors performed worse at spotting cancer risks after AI assistance was removed. The implications highlight a broader concern: over-reliance on AI may erode essential cognitive skills, even in short-term usage. The researchers concluded that performance decline is a general consequence of AI-assisted problem-solving, not limited to specific tasks. This suggests a need for cautious integration of AI tools to preserve human reasoning abilities.
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