We’ve known for decades that people retain information better when they read it on paper than on screens, and there’s already evidence that even moderate AI usage is linked to cognitive atrophy.
The more we rely on these sycophantic “research assistants,” the quicker the cognitive decline, which negatively affects decision-making and analytical reasoning.
The rhetoric promulgating the use of AI to “cultivate critical thinking skills” is therefore highly questionable, if not a lie. But if you repeat something often enough …
And that repetition might be the biggest challenge for educators. AI appears, unbidden, even when it’s redundant or harmful.
Our Google Chromebook laptops (the same machines the Toronto District School Board issues to students in Grade 5) are now automatically outfitted with the AI tool Gemini; Google searches give you AI-generated summaries unprompted; I’ve even been bombarded with redundant AI-generated book descriptions when using the ProQuest scholarly research platform Ebook Central. (Thanks, Microsoft Copilot, but I prefer to read the peer-reviewed abstract.) It really is unavoidable.
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