Question

ChatGPT is ruining your memory.

Answer 1

I found that the claim “ChatGPT is ruining your memory” is misleading. There is no strong scientific proof that ChatGPT or other AI tools destroy our memory. Some studies show that people may remember less information when they rely too much on AI, but it does not mean memory is being ruined.

An article from Le Monde talks about an MIT Media Lab study where participants using ChatGPT showed lower brain activity during memory tasks, but the study was small and not peer-reviewed. Another paper from Cambridge Universitysays that AI is changing how we remember, not destroying our ability to remember. These studies show changes, not damage.

https://www.lemonde.fr/en/science/article/2025/07/02/chatgpt-use-significantly-reduces-brain-activity-an-mit-study-finds_6742927_10.html#

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/memory-mind-and-media/article/ai-and-memory/BB2E4B113B826133E1B6C8DB6BACD192

A recent article from Science Focus also explains that AI may distract us or create false memories, but it depends on how people use it. The problem comes from human behavior, not from ChatGPT itself.

https://www.sciencefocus.com/future-technology/ai-probably-already-faked-memories-artificial-intelligence

These sources might have some bias, especially because titles like “ruining your memory” are designed to get attention. The scientific data doesn’t confirm this idea. I checked MIT’s website but didn’t find a direct statement about ChatGPT ruining memory.

This research taught me that this claim mixes real information with exaggeration. AI can affect how we use memory, but it also helps us think and learn differently. The best solution is to use ChatGPT wisely, not depend on it completely.

Answer 2

This claim is largely true because numerous psychological studies and reports have concluded that excessive dependence or usage on ChatGPT leads to poorer memory, lower brain engagement, and a loss of cognitive ownership. A study from MIT, found in Psychology Today, showed that in simple tasks, such as writing an essay, the AI assistant of ChatGPT lowered students' creativity due to the lack of effort, which lowered other things, such as critical thinking and overall growth. An article by Jordan Gibbs in the Medium shares a similar idea that AI helpers such as ChatGPT "poison" one's brain. 

It's important to know there is direct evidence that correlates with the use of AI engines like ChatGPT to have negative effects on education and overall brain activity, including memory. It's also important to note, however, that while research has shown negative effects of overusing ChatGPT for cognitively challenging tasks such as school work, AI, still being a relatively newer concept, isn't backed up by the most extensive research to prove a cumulative change over time. In MIT's study, which is largely referenced in this debate, the researchers themselves said, "We had a limited number of participants recruited from a specific geographical area, several large academic institutions, located very close to each other..." And for the grading of the essays written by students, they had a specially built AI agent, showing that there are still benefits and resourceful ways to use AI that aren't necessarily harmful. This is still an ongoing debate, but there is evidence that an overuse of AI assistance can affect memory negatively.

https://www.brainonllm.com 
 

Comments

Another fact-check on this post states that the MIT study you cited was small and not peer-reviewed. Would that impact the decision you would make on your fact check if they were correct?

Answer 3

There is limited evidence out there which supports this claim, but the evidence that is available points towards this claim being true. 

In a study from MIT headed by Nataliya Kosmyna, participants were divided into three groups: LLM-assisted, search-engine assisted, and brain-only. These groups each completed three essay-writing sessions under the same conditions. MIT used an EEG to assess cognitive load in each participant. Their results found that brain-only users exhibited the strongest and most distributed networks, with brain activity scaling down with use of tools, LLM's giving the most assistance and yielding the least brain activity. Over the course of four months, LLM users consistently underperformed on neural levels. During this study, LLM users and brain-only participants were asked to rewrite what they had just wrote without LLM assistance. Participants who used LLMs in the first writing had a difficult time recalling what they had just wrote, while brain-only participants were able to rewrite with little difficulty (Time). This study has not yet been peer-reviewed, but early evidence points to clear decline in cognitive activity with the use of LLMs.

Comments

Great showing both sides at the beginning explaining how there is little evidence out there yet siding with the claim and explaining how it is true. Great work!

Answer 4

The claim that ChatGPT is ruining the memory of its users is true. In a study done by MIT, participants were split into three separate groups. Group one was asked to write an essay with the assistance of AI. Group two was asked to write an essay with the assistance of a search engine. Group three was asked to write an essay with no assistance. While writing these essays, the cognitive load of the subjects was assessed. Subjects who used no assistance had the strongest cognitive engagement, search engine had moderate engagement, and those who used AI showed the weakest connectivity. The subjects then switched study conditions. Subjects using no assistance switched to using AI, and vice versa. The participants going from no assistance to AI exhibited higher memory recall, while AI to no assistance had trouble accurately quoting their own work. 

Answer 5

I found this claim to be relatively true. 

A lot of the sources I found use a study from MIT, where they divided 54 subjects into three groups, participants ranging from ages 18-34, all from the Boston area. The subjects were asked to write multiple SAT essays, one using ChatGPT, one using Google, and the other using nothing. They used an EEG to record the brain activity of each participant. Results showed that the group using ChatGPT had the lowest brain engagement and was underperforming while writing. Over the span of a couple of months, it shows the ChatGPT group got lazier and lazier to the point they just started copy and pasting exactly what ChatGPT was saying. https://time.com/7295195/ai-chatgpt-google-learning-school/ 

Another source I found argues that even though OpenAI, like ChatGPT, is useful and has some benefits, there's a concern about what it's doing to human cognition. This source references multiple studies with similar findings, and suggests that the more frequent AI use is, the lower the critical thinking skills are, especially among younger people. Some of the studies include Michael Gerlich's study at the Swiss Business School (SBS), and a similar study done by researchers at Microsoft and Carnegie Mellon University. This source provides some very helpful insight into studies that have happened all over the world and show very similar results that ChatGPT is ruining people's cognitive and brain capacities https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/apr/19/dont-ask-what-ai-can-do-for-us-ask-what-it-is-doing-to-us-are-chatgpt-and-co-harming-human-intelligence

The last source I found explains a study published in the International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education. The study showed that the reliance on ChatGPT can lead to things like "procrastination, memory loss, and a decline in academic performance." This source highlights that excessive use of ChatGPT can have negative effects on a person's learning behavior and outcomes. https://www.psypost.org/chatgpt-linked-to-declining-academic-performance-and-memory-loss-in-new-study/#google_vignette

Answer 6

From my research I found that this claim is true. A study by International journal of educational technology in higher educations says, that memory loss refers to a condition or state in which an individual experiences difficulty in recalling information or events from the past. Continuous use of ChatGPT for academic tasks can lead to laziness and weaken cognitive skills leading to memory loss. Over reliance on AI for academic tasks, can damage memory retention, cognitive functioning, and critical thinking abilities. Active learning, which involves cognitive engagement with the content, is crucial for memory consolidation and retention. Students who use ChatGPT reduce their cognitive efforts to complete their tasks, resulting in poor memory. 

https://educationaltechnologyjournal.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s41239-024-00444-7

Further more a study done at MIT's media lab divided 54 subjects into three groups, and asked them to write several SAT essays using ChatGPT, Google, and nothing at all. Researchers used an EEG to record the writer's brain activity across 32 regions. They found that out of the three groups ChatGPT users had the lowest brain engagement. The researchers named this effect "cognitive debt", referencing how repeated reliance on AI may impair cognitive processes behind independent thinking. This illustrates that the short-term benefit of productivity and lower mental effort may lead to long-term costs in lower critical thinking, creativity, learning, and memory. 

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/urban-survival/202506/how-chatgpt-may-be-impacting-your-brain

https://www.media.mit.edu/publications/your-brain-on-chatgpt/