Word of the Week: Brain rot. Does use of artificial intelligence make students dumber? | Columnists
Word of the Week: Brain rot. Does use of artificial intelligence make students dumber? | Columnists
Publish Date: 2026-05-09 05:15:00
Source Domain: www.berkshireeagle.com
“Brain rot,” Oxford’s Word of the Year in 2024, refers to both the mental degradation from consuming too much unchallenging or trivial content online and to the content itself. Even though “brain rot” has been in current use only since the early 2000s, the earliest known example is in Thoreau’s 1854 book Walden: “While England endeavors to cure the potato-rot, will not any endeavor to cure the brain-rot, which prevails so much more widely and fatally?”
The MIT Media Lab recently conducted a study of the cognitive cost of using large language models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT or search engines instead of just our unassisted brains.
Assigned to draft an essay, students were divided into three groups: unlimited use of ChatGPT; unlimited use of search engines (but no LLMs); and no use of any electronic media, only their brains.
The researchers used electroencephalography to record students’ brain activity to assess cognitive engagement (extent to which individuals invest mental effort and attention in learning or problem-solving activities) and cognitive load (amount of mental effort and resources required to process information and perform tasks), in addition to conducting interviews with students after drafting those essays. Here’s what they found.
The brain-only group exhibited the strongest, widest-ranging brain networks. The search engine group showed intermediate engagement. The ChatGPT group elicited the weakest overall brain activity.
As a practical matter, this means that the brain-only group had the highest memory recall and reengagement with the subject of the essay. The search engine group had some memory recall, and the ChatGPT group fell behind in the ability to quote from their own essays written just minutes before.
The MIT authors cautioned that this study involved a limited number of participants and, because…
