Technology ultimately comes from inertia. Are you honestly feeling that you have become a member of "brain outsourcing" by using AI for work, writing, and even creation every day?
Perhaps you haven't yet understood what brain outsourcing is. Unlike the "memory externalization" habit developed by using search engines like Google over decades, brain outsourcing structurally destroys people's original creativity and imagination, pushing people's minds more towards mechanical goals rather than planning and executing.
Expert Warning
Sega Cheng, founder of the domestic AI-renowned company iKala, recently wrote a Facebook post that reads quite shocking, authorized as follows:
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Brain Outsourcing Fully Activated
Although I had mentioned this matter in my book earlier, I was still quite surprised by the severity of the issue after seeing the actual scientific research results.
When we input commands in a dialog box and ask ChatGPT to draft an email, write a report, or even generate creative ideas, are we truly assisting our thinking, or are we unconsciously performing a large-scale "brain outsourcing"?
MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) provided us with scientific evidence last week, which was likely already anticipated by most people and not particularly surprising.
Researchers recruited 54 participants, equipped them with EEG devices, and asked them to complete multiple articles within 4 months. They were divided into three groups:
- ChatGPT Group: Using ChatGPT to assist in writing.
- Google Search Group: Only using traditional search engines.
- Pure Brain Group: Relying solely on their own brain for thinking and writing.
As a result, long-term ChatGPT users showed a significant decline in brain connectivity. When asked to write independently without AI, their brain activity patterns resembled those of novice writers rather than experienced authors. This is the direct consequence of brain outsourcing: you completely delegate the cognitive task of constructing arguments and organizing text to AI, much like forgetting how to drive after hiring a driver.
Even more disturbing is a "cognitive amnesia" phenomenon: up to 83% of ChatGPT users could not accurately quote sentences they had written just minutes earlier (with AI assistance). Because the process of thinking and organizing has been outsourced, we have become mere "information movers" instead of "knowledge internalizers". In comparison, only 11% of the "pure brain group" experienced similar difficulties.
This is an enormous difference: 83% vs 11%.
Researchers named this consequence "cognitive debt": you trade future cognitive abilities for immediate convenience. This is similar to how GPS creates a group of directionally challenged individuals, where over-reliance weakens our built-in spatial sense and navigation skills. Now, ChatGPT has elevated outsourcing from "sense of direction" to "thinking" itself.
This is indeed very concerning, as "thinking ability" is the key to our self-proclaimed status as the most intelligent beings.
This scientific discovery actually aligns with many ancient wisdom traditions (science often helps verify ancient wisdom). Before computers, many cultures had already warned about the dangers of taking shortcuts, with Japanese philosophy being particularly profound:
"Shu-Ha-Ri" is a three-stage learning theory originating from traditional arts like martial arts and tea ceremony, perfectly illustrating the challenges of the AI era.
- Shu: Protect, obey. Apprentices must completely imitate and faithfully follow the master's teachings and all basic skills, with no personal interpretation allowed, aiming to internalize fundamentals as instinct.
- Ha: Break through. After fully mastering the basics, apprentices begin to question traditions and seek methods more suitable for themselves.
- Ri: Detach, transcend. Ultimately, learners completely surpass the original form and create their own entirely new path.
Directly using AI-generated content is like an apprentice who hasn't even gone through the "Shu" stage attempting to enter the "Ha" and "Ri" realms. The result may seem glamorous but lacks a solid foundation.
Similarly, Japanese "craftsmanship spirit" advocates perfecting a skill, exemplified by sushi chefs' apprentices spending years learning to cook rice. True excellence comes from painstaking refinement of fundamentals.
This "no shortcuts" cultural wisdom is not merely philosophical rhetoric but is rooted in the scientific principles of brain functioning.
First, there's neuroplasticity, the brain's "use it or lose it" characteristic. When we actively think and solve problems, relevant neural connections are strengthened. Conversely, long-term outsourcing of these tasks will weaken connectivity.
Taking shortcuts will have consequences. If you take shortcuts in thinking, the price you'll pay is reduced neural connectivity in your brain, making it progressively less effective.
The best way to enhance brain connectivity comes from deliberate practice and desirable difficulty.
Our brains learn most effectively and create the most lasting memories when facing challenges beyond our comfort zone. The seamless convenience provided by AI precisely deprives us of opportunities to experience this "beneficial difficulty", leaving knowledge superficial and unable to take root.
So, how should we coexist with AI? The answer is definitely not to ban it, but to use it intelligently.
A key finding from the MIT study offers us a glimmer of hope: participants who first completed drafts independently and then used ChatGPT for refinement and editing actually showed enhanced brain connectivity.
The conclusion is clear: first complete the cognitive heavy lifting with your own brain (Shu), then use AI as an enhancement tool to seek breakthroughs (Ha, Ri).
This conclusion is crucial for the next generation of children and newcomers in all fields. We should treat AI as a potentially unlimited "collaborator", not a "replacement" for thinking that we can carelessly offload tasks to without consideration.
Only by doing so can we enjoy the benefits of technology while avoiding unsustainable "cognitive debt", ensuring we remain independent thinkers and preventing ourselves from outsourcing our brains from the start.
Don't give up thinking from the beginning.
The Severity of Brain Outsourcing
Let's describe brain outsourcing using a non-medical term "cognitive laziness syndrome". When cognitive tasks become too easy, the brain reduces investment, thereby weakening neural network activity and ultimately causing substantial cognitive function degradation. For example, stroke patients, if not rehabilitated, will have brain regions that are not used simply shut down.
Or to use an extreme analogy: If you sit in a wheelchair for a continuous year, can your legs still walk?
In the past two years, behavioral scientists have begun to refocus on research related to human neuroplasticity due to the prevalence of AI. Every time we choose to let AI think for us, we are actually wasting an opportunity to learn and strengthen ourselves. In behavioral psychology, this is viewed as a loss of opportunity cost; the consequence is that the brain will accumulate a risk of structural neural degeneration.
From a more utilitarian perspective, after all, the vast majority of people who first access and use AI daily are due to work requirements. We will very clearly feel that AI tools significantly increase productivity (perhaps accompanied by a significant reduction in the number of colleagues).
Over time, the side effect of working with AI is often the outsourcing of the brain mentioned above. In pursuit of productivity breakthroughs, workers' behaviors are reduced to "input operators" of mouse clicks and sliding, becoming a specific type of porter, skipping the new knowledge and mental pathways encountered in work, as we ultimately pursue the final execution result.
This often gives us a full illusion of knowledge possession, creating an illusion in humans that we understand, but in fact, we have absorbed and digested nothing. In the long run, not only will our professional capabilities not grow, but it will also seriously damage our future work abilities.
