THE awesome power of generative AI has raised concerns in academic and scientific circles about the impact the technology may be having on human cognitive development and whether it could lead to the ‘dumbing down’ of human society. A study, still under peer review, conducted by a joint American-British team of researchers asserts that using AI tools to solve arithmetic or reading comprehension exercises boosted the study participants’ short-term performance, but eroded both their results and their willingness to keep trying to crack a problem when the tools were unavailable. This lack of motivation was of serious concern for the researchers, who pointed out that “persistence is foundational to skill acquisition”. “What makes AI particularly concerning is that it’s not a tool designated for one specific kind of activity. It’s something that can be used across pretty much any intellectual, reasoning, cognitive activity,” observed one of the study’s authors separately, pointing to the sheer breadth of mental activity the technology can displace.

In some ways, such anxieties fit into a historical pattern. Socrates, in Plato’s Phaedrus, warned that writing would destroy memory and produce the appearance of wisdom without its substance. Likewise, the printing press was blamed for information overload and spreading heresy. The television was dubbed the ‘idiot box’, calculators were considered the bane of students’ mathematical reasoning skills, and even Google was once thought to make users dull. Almost every cognitive technology has been accused of hollowing out the mind; yet every time, humans have adapted and the tools have simply become part of how we live and think. Still, with AI, perhaps it would be best not to dismiss all caution as panic. Adults using AI to automate intellectual labour for which they have already acquired the underlying skills is one thing, but for children in their formative years, unchecked use of AI could potentially atrophy critical developmental skills. Persistence, memory and reasoning are acquired through the same kind of intellectual labour that AI is designed to automate. Therefore, it would be prudent for teachers and parents to treat AI, and screens broadly, the same way they treat anything age-restricted: with supervision, limits and patience. While the alarmists are likely to be proven wrong once again about AI and its effects on adults, it is best not to conduct a generation-long experiment on children merely to find out.

Published in Dawn, July 17th, 2026