Marketers warned AI can lead to the loss of brain power

Marketers could be storing up trouble for the future by jumping so readily on the AI bandwagon, amid new claims that consistent use of the technology could actually make users lose cognitive skills like memory, language and critical thinking.

According to HubSpot’s 2025 State of AI in Marketing Report – published last week – UK marketers are rapid-adopters of the technology, with 84% now using AI in their daily roles, compared to a global average of 66%.

Meanwhile, agency groups are clambering to get aboard, with the likes of WPP Media and Publicis recently launching major new tools.

But researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have found that people who rely on AI to craft long-form texts may be damaging their cognitive skills.

The MIT study found that regular users of tools like ChatGPT had lower brain activity than those who did not rely on the services.

The study split a sample of consumers into three groups and asked them to write four articles.

One group was able to use ChatGPT to help them, one group was permitted to use search engines for research, and the other was only able to rely on brain power.

The ChatGPT group, who were allowed to use AI for three out of four articles, were then asked to write the fourth solely on brain power.

The participants were hooked up to electroencephalogram (EEG) brain activity scans, and were asked questions about their essays while they worked.

The group who used ChatGPT performed notably worse than the others, and in fact were the worst performers in all measured neural categories.

Their work was also deemed to be of worse quality than the other groups, being described as “homogenous”, and featuring “repeating language and themes”.

In their final article written just on brain power, the ChatGPT cohort also demonstrated a limited ability to retain learned information, as well as a diminished ability to brainstorm and problem solve.

The study found that brain activity proportionally scaled down with the amount of “external support” received while working. Those using AI, which largely takes the labour of writing and research out of the writer’s hands, had the weakest levels of brain activity. Search engine research, on the other hand, did not pose much of a negative effect on users, as it still required the user’s own comprehension.

Notably, the ChatGPT group displayed significant lower “theta” brainwaves, which are associated with learning and high level cognitive activity in the brain. The study noted that “human thinking” and “planning” skills were largely offloaded by the use of AI chatbots.

After writing their articles, the participants were then quizzed on what they had written. When asked to recite any part of their work, more than 8 out of ten (83%) of the ChatGPT group failed to recite a single line from any of their essays. This is compared to 10% of those who had written their essays solely on brainpower, or with the assistance of search engine research.

The report concluded: “As we stand at this technological crossroads, it becomes crucial to understand the full spectrum of cognitive consequences associated with large language model integration in educational and informational contexts. While these tools offer unprecedented opportunities for enhancing learning and information access, their potential impact on cognitive development, critical thinking, and intellectual independence demands a very careful consideration and continued research.

“Participants who were in the brain-only group reported higher satisfaction and demonstrated higher brain connectivity, compared to other groups.

“Essays written with the help of LLM carried a lesser significance or value to the participants, as they spent less time on writing, and mostly failed to provide a quote from their work.

“We believe that the longitudinal studies are needed in order to understand the long-term impact of the LLMs on the human brain, before LLMs are recognised as something that is net positive for the humans.”

Picture credit: New Line Productions, Inc