AI Raises Concerns About Declining Human Thinking Skills

The European Business Review published an article on June 1, 2026 by Marcelina Horrillo Husillos that surveys concerns about how everyday AI tools affect human cognition. According to the article, a recent MIT Media Lab report warned that "excessive reliance on AI-driven solutions" may contribute to "cognitive atrophy." The article also reports that when asked ChatGPT whether AI can make people dumber or smarter, the model answered, "It depends on how we engage with it: as a crutch or a tool for growth." The piece frames these observations around the psychological concept of cognitive offloading, and reports claims that students who default to AI-generated responses can weaken cognitive flexibility and information-evaluation skills.

Industry-pattern observations: Cognitive offloading is a well-documented behaviour in cognitive science where external tools reduce the need to memorise or rehearse information. For practitioners building educational platforms, recommender systems, or developer tools, this pattern matters because reduced active practice can change the data distribution of user interactions, affect annotation quality, and alter long-term user skill development.

Public reporting on cognitive atrophy joins broader debates about AI ethics, human-in-the-loop design, and assessment integrity. For academic institutions and companies that rely on human judgment as part of product or safety pipelines, shifts in user reasoning habits could influence how organisations validate outputs and structure feedback loops.

Observers should track empirical studies that quantify longitudinal impacts of AI assistance on reasoning, changes in assessment and credentialing practices in education, and product-level design changes that explicitly require or incentivise user reasoning. Also watch for replication studies from primary research institutions cited in public commentary, and for policy or accreditation responses that address AI-assisted assessment.

Note: The summary above reports claims and quotes as presented in the European Business Review article. The article cites a MIT Media Lab report and reproduces a ChatGPT response; it does not provide a named, detailed empirical study measuring long-term cognitive decline.