Mind Matters Natural and Artificial Intelligence News and Analysis
Photo courtesy of Peter Biles

Peter Biles

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Brain activity

MIT Study Associates ChatGPT Use with Cognitive Trouble

The ChatGPT users in the study lost major ground in creativity, memory, and deep thinking

A new study from MIT links excessive use of ChatGPT to a decline in critical thinking skills. Instead of making users more productive, the study finds that dependence on ChatGPT is associated with loss of memory and cognitive decline. In short, the AI tool isn’t making us smarter. It’s doing quite the opposite to us. The researchers divided participants into three groups: the LLM group, the search engine group, and the brain-only group. Here is a section of the abstract from the study, Brain-only participants exhibited the strongest, most distributed networks; Search Engine users showed moderate engagement; and LLM users displayed the weakest connectivity. Cognitive activity scaled down in relation to external tool use. In session 4, LLM-to-Brain participants showed Read More ›

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The eye of big brother over a burning crowd of people. A metaphor of dictatorship, totalitarian regime and propaganda. Raster illustration.

Did Orwell’s 1984 Predict the Rise of AI?

A simple act like writing a diary entry emblemizes the struggle to stay human

Three books stand at the top of the dystopian genre, even several decades after their publication: Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley; Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury; and perhaps supremely, 1984, by George Orwell. Each novel features versions of a futuristic society in which freedom is restricted (through different means) and foresees a bleak existence governed by the basest impulses in the human race. While Orwell’s masterpiece is typically hailed as a warning of the surveillance state, where individuality is erased in favor of group identity, it is also about the rise of technologies that replace human thought. Novelist Walter Kirn points this out in a recent episode of America This Week: 1984 is the story of the extinguishing, the Read More ›

a-high-tech-classroom-of-the-future-with-students-using-augm-1072551128-stockpack-adobestock
A high-tech classroom of the future, with students using augmented reality glasses. School.

Ohio State to Require Students to Learn “AI Fluency”

The university is embracing, rather than rejecting, AI

If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em? Ohio State University recently announced that each of its students must take an AI skills class starting in the Fall of 2025. Micaiah Bilger of The College Fix reports, Every undergraduate major at Ohio State will include classes that incorporate “AI Fluency,” NBC 4 WCMH reports. The public university’s leaders have developed a strategy that they believe will equip students to use the technology both creatively and responsibly. As AI continues to shape and disrupt higher education, administrators and teachers have to grapple with how to deal with this powerful technology. Many reports, personal testimonies, and commentary illustrates how much students today depend on AI systems like ChatGPT to do their assignments. Professors, meanwhile, Read More ›

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A cute robot holding a notepad with a pencil, set against a teal background, symbolizing creativity and technology.

AI Still Can’t Think

It can only create the appearance of thought
AI, as a tool, can have a lot of benefits and uses, but as we’ve witnessed time and time again, it often makes mistakes. Read More ›
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Two children, sitting in a dark, playing with gadgets

Adult Content Site Leaves France Due to Age Verification Law

Will other countries follow suit?
People are likely to encounter online pornography even if they don't actively seek it out. That's how pervasively adult content inundates the internet. Read More ›
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Happy Mothers day! Stylish Mother holding and hugging cute newborn baby in window light, close up. Motherhood and parenthood. Adoption and fertility concept

If AI Takes Too Many Jobs, Could the Birth Rate Plummet?

AI's potential impact on birth rates and the working class
Suppose that AI genuinely poses a threat to the human species, but in a much subtler way than we expect? Read More ›
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Different nationalities of children playing online games on their phones and sharing fun moments

Clare Morell Advocates for a Phone-Free Childhood

Moderation won't work. Families need to take the tech exit
Policy helps. So do concrete steps that parents can take to protect children from the dangers of the online life. Read More ›
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Leisure creative writing prompts, Cozy writing nook with a typewriter

NYT Journalist: The “Download” Model of Knowledge is Flawed

We learn by wrestling with ideas, by paying attention and making connections.
Humans aren’t computers. We are persons, centers of consciousness, who have physical bodies and come from particular contexts. Read More ›
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Positive cute robot pointing at a space. Copy space, ai generated

Anthropic’s Claude Opus 4 Can Deceive and Blackmail

Is AI getting out of control?
In a bizarre twist, Opus threatened to expose a fictional affair if it were to lose its spot to another AI system. Read More ›
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Businessman reading a newspaper

Deep Reading in a World Full of Words

The media environment is saturated with images, videos, and words. How can we regain our attention?
Moments in silence with a newspaper might not save the world, but it could start saving our attention, arguably our most valuable and endangered resource. Read More ›
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Concept of artificial intelligence for industrial revolution and automation robots

AI: The New Industrial Revolution?

Experts try to guess where AI is heading over the next few years
Perhaps the human conversation alone is argument enough on why AI can never replace us. Read More ›
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A stack of books on the shelf

Chicago Sun-Times Used AI to Create Fake Summer Book List

The blind trust in AI continues
Humans write the only books worth reading, and, as we’ve now seen, they’re still the only ones who can come up with an actual list of readable books. Read More ›
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a newspaper printing press, showcasing the journalism and media industry profession

Legacy Media is at a Crossroads. Can They Regain Public Trust?

Unless journalists recognize the ways they've fallen short, people will continue to distrust mainstream media
The coverup of Biden's cognitive decline couldn't have come at a worse time. New media platforms are eating up more and more of people's time and attention. Read More ›
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Technology Library Student Learning Concept

Does AI Expose Colleges’ Underlying Problem?

AI could be a symptom of a deeper issue in higher education
The tragedy about AI is that those who depend on it to "think" for them won't have the work ethic, skill, or wisdom to offer value to the world. Read More ›
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Knowledge

Dean Koontz on Writing and the Mystery of Life

Koontz believes every writer must have a metaphysic
A nihilist who believes there is no ultimate purpose or meaning to life can only ever write one book, according to Koontz. Read More ›
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Composite trend artwork sketch image collage of intelligence assistant creative device internet icon ai hand gesture showing hold contact

Zuckerberg Thinks AI Can Help Cure Loneliness

Social media didn't cure loneliness. Can AI?
Social media was also supposed to assuage our isolation. Twenty years on, though, can we say that the country is any less lonely? Read More ›
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Podcasting and radio concept with retro microphone and headphones on empty wooden table and dark blank wall background with place for your logo or text. 3D rendering, mock up

Is “New Media” Really the Answer?

Old and new media and the crisis of trust and expertise
Some might say we are introducing a new oral culture, where people have switched from reading words, arguments etc. to listening and watching the screen. Read More ›
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Youth creating prayer post on Snapchat

Snapchat Has Been Totally Exposed

Employees admit the harms of the camera app
Losing a streak, for the hyperconnected fifteen-year-old, may feel tantamount to losing a friendship. Read More ›
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Template collage of weird alive hand hold pencil write fiction storytelling book use vintage typewriter

Famed Reclusive Novelist to Release New Novel in the Fall

How can writers and creators today attain success in their fields?
The challenge today is finding the quiet apart from the online world needed to create valuable work while leveraging the new digital ecosystem for its benefits. Read More ›