Should We Outsource Our Thinking To Machines?

I recently reviewed two pieces of academic research on the impact of use of GenAI tools on a human's critical thinking abilities. The research fascinates me, and I wish I had the ability and funds to do this type of research, but I don't. The authors work at prestigious universities and corporate research centers around the world. If you have the time, it is worth reading the papers. They offer compelling quantified results and acknowledge the limitations of their work.

Here are a few of my key takeaways from their research:

(And all of the credit to the authors. I pulled my selections from their work.)

• Heavy use of GenAI tools (a.k.a. “cognitive offloading”) reduces one’s critical thinking. The decline is sharper for those who are less educated, younger (i.e., a lifetime of cognitive offloading), and less confident in their abilities. 
  

• One’s use of critical thinking shifts from problem-solving to evaluating responses from GenAI tools (i.e., ensuring quality) and applying them (when using GenAI tools).
  

• There is an inverse correlation between confidence in one’s own abilities and that in GenAI tools (task-specific). 
  

• Use of GenAI tools creates mechanical convergence i.e., lack of diversity in outputs. 
  

• GenAI introduces three types of critical thinking barriers: awareness (i.e., users don’t think critically about outputs if they perceive tasks as trivial), motivation (i.e., workers may be measured by productivity rather than quality), and ability (i.e., workers are asked to do tasks they otherwise have no ability to do which means they can’t assess the quality of the output.) 

GenAI will not be the first technology advancement that will lead to human atrophy

My ancestors left Norway in the mid- to late 1800’s because they were hungry (according to my father). At that time, more than 50% of Americans were devoted to growing food. Today, it is less than 2%. Today we (Americans) do far less physical labor. We eat fast- or prepared foods rather than cook. We drive to many places rather than walk.  There are some negatives - nearly 40% of Americans have diabetes or pre-diabetes. On the other hand, we’ve invented the fitness industry (> $100B annually on related spend) and vitamins and supplements (> $50B annually) to make up the gaps (kind of). 

I grew up (mostly) without cable let alone streaming TV, computers, smartphones, Email, or the Internet. Not counting Atari or my HP-15C, I was in college before I owned a “screen” and even that was monochrome. When I learned to use Lotus 1-2-3, I had to program each cell manually. People my age thought that the Internet and especially Google would doom the next generation because they used it to find so much information. We used the Dewey Decimal System and Encyclopedia Britannica. (#headsmack) On one hand we cringe at what “the next generation” can’t do or roll our eyes because “an influencer” is the top job teenagers aspire to get. On the other, technology innovations are accelerating scientific discoveries; giving rural African populations access to banking, education, and healthcare, and generally making our lives easy. 

FWIW, I often think, “I am glad I grew up without the technology, and I am happy to have it now.” I appreciate the skills I built, and I don’t need to do everything manually now. 

We should care a lot about Earth’s populations’ critical thinking abilities. 

(from the authors) 

• Helps aid in the prevention and verification of misinformation i.e., be an informed citizen

• Enhances our ability to assess future risks, make ethical (and smart) decisions

• Aids our ability to combine new knowledge with existing memory or knowledge (i.e., our ability to learn and remember or avoid digital amnesia

• Enables us to connect dots, solve problems, and make decisions

Use It or Lose It - applies to all of our abilities (if we still need them)

We first need to assess 1) what skills we need in the future and 2) how to apply them. I am not sure I can still write in cursive. It would be slow. I can still print, and I can use a computer. I am not sure I will ever need to write in cursive again - my computer even generates a signature for me.

The authors suggest that we may shift the focus on our critical thinking to “information verification, response integration, and task stewardship.” We definitely need to improve our ability to write prompts i.e., express exactly what we mean in English to get outputs, build agents, and more. 

Maybe we’ll do crossword puzzles and challenge our brains in other ways to keep them healthy? 

Open questions:

1. Will the heavy use of GenAI tools in enterprises to chase productivity gains result in the long-term debilitation of their workforce i.e., impacting their ability to innovate, create, and do new things? 
   

2. Life can be easy if all of our experiences are adapted, interactive, and personalized to us. Is this a good thing? I interviewed a few primary education teachers in my research. While they acknowledged the abilities of technology to help students with different learning styles and abilities, they also cited students reduced abilities to cope when experiences or situations don’t adapt to them. 
   

3. Slow living - moving, cooking, eating, thinking, reading, connecting with others, etc. - has a lot of benefits. And, life's shortcuts enabled by modern technology in can be good. I'd rather workout for an hour per day and enjoy my comfy life in SF than grow my own food. I'd prefer to take a few vitamins than optimize to perfection what I eat each day. And we need to be deliberate with what we do quickly and slowly. Listening to an audio book isn't the same as reading (if you have the ability to read and access to books in your native language). Running on a treadmill isn't the same as running outdoors. There are value exchanges in many of our decisions.

Background

What is critical thinking?

Author (Michael Gurlich) simplest it to: “the ability to analyze, evaluate, and synthesize information to make reasoned decisions.” 

The authors (Lee et.al.) use a framework they compiled from the work of others led by Benjamin S. Bloom. It includes 1) knowledge (recall of ideas) 2) comprehension (demonstrating understanding of ideas) 3) application (putting those ideas into practice) 4) analysis (contrasting and relating ideas) 5) synthesis (combining ideas) and 6) evaluation (judging ideas through criteria). 

What is cognitive offloading? 

According to Gerlich (who leans on E.F. Risko and S. Gilbert), “cognitive offloading occurs when individuals delegate cognitive tasks to external aids, reducing their engagement in deep, reflective thinking.” 

Referenced Documents:

1. The Impact of Generative AI on Critical Thinking: Self-Reported Reductions in Cognitive Effort and Confidence Effects From a Survey of Knowledge WorkersAuthors: Hao-Ping (Hank) Lee, Advait Sarkar, Lev Tankelevitch, Ian Drosos, Sean Rintel, Richard Bands, and Nicholas Wilson

2. “AI Tools in Society: Impacts on Cognitive Offloading and the Future of Critical Thinking”Author: Michael Gerlich