43 People Use ChatGPT To Age Up Childhood Photos, Then Compare Them Side-By-Side With Reality

There’s a lot of hype, joy, anger, and distrust surrounding generative AI tools. It’s a very emotionally messy subject. You’ll find many people who have embraced the ongoing technological shift, integrated tools into their lives, and swear by them. That’s on top of the countless people using these models for fun, to power up their businesses, or even for something as sensitive as therapy and relationship advice.

On the other hand, there are plenty of (healthy) skeptics out there, too, who think the over-the-top hype doesn’t match the actual usefulness of these models. Not to mention all the artists, writers, and creatives who don’t exactly enjoy having their hard work scraped and plopped into datasets used to train the latest AI models. Without their permission, of course.

And let’s not forget how many folks in white-collar positions are scared that they’ll be replaced by cheaper (and arguably worse-performing, unreliable, unimaginative) models.

Using LLMs (large language models) and generative AI might be handy, but it comes at a steep cost. Relying on them too much can erode your critical thinking skills, among other things.

Reporting on new research conducted by MIT’s Media Lab, Time Magazine explains that ChatGPT users had lower brain engagement than regular writers. The former “consistently underperformed at neural, linguistic, and behavioral levels” when using gen AI for essays.

According to the study, the individuals using ChatGPT actually got lazier with each essay they had to produce. By the end of the study, they often just copied and pasted whatever was generated.

While the study is relatively small and not yet peer-reviewed, the implication is more or less clear. Relying on LLMs might be convenient, but it harms brain development.

“What really motivated me to put it out now before waiting for a full peer review is that I am afraid in 6-8 months, there will be some policymaker who decides, ‘let’s do GPT kindergarten.’ I think that would be absolutely bad and detrimental. Developing brains are at the highest risk,” says the study’s main author, Nataliya Kosmyna.

In the meantime, other recent studies have found that people feel lonelier and socialize less the more they spend time chatting with ChatGPT.

In particular, people who trusted the chatbot and tended to get emotionally attached in real relationships felt lonelier and more emotionally dependent on ChatGPT.

Furthermore, discussing general topics led to more emotional dependence on ChatGPT, while discussing personal topics led to feelings of loneliness in the short term.

Even though many people have found uses for generative AI, like automating mundane work, these tools aren’t as powerful and reliable as some companies might have you believe.

Gary Marcus, a professor emeritus at New York University, author, and the founder of two AI companies, is one of the most insightful voices on the internet when it comes to speaking about the limitations and drawbacks of gen AI.

In a recent republished adaptation of his Substack essay in The Guardian, he covered Apple’s recent research paper about how LLMs and LRMs (large reasoning models) are limited in their reasoning, understanding, and general intelligence.