Counting on AI to Solve Problems Makes Us More Likely to Struggle and Give Up, Study Suggests - CNET

Our gifting experts are obsessively searching for holiday gifts that are unique, thoughtful and suitable for any budget. Our expert, award-winning staff selects the products we cover and rigorously researches and tests our top picks. If you buy through our links, we may earn a commission. Researchers say the findings raise questions about what happens to our brains and patterns if we depend too much on AI. AI tools can be helpful but should be used with caution. Using generative AI for a few minutes to solve a complex math problem or draft an email may be a quick and easy way to get the job done. But your critical thinking, creativity and reasoning skills sit unused if AI is doing all the hard work for you. That might have more of an effect than you think. A recent preprint study by researchers from Carnegie Mellon University, the University of Oxford, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of California, Los Angeles, found that participants who relied on AI to practice doing a task for just 10 minutes struggled to do that task without it, compared to those who never used AI for it in the first place. The researchers said AI chatbots can help with “reasoning-i