{"id":29720,"date":"2026-01-05T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-01-05T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/?p=29720"},"modified":"2025-12-24T11:33:37","modified_gmt":"2025-12-24T16:33:37","slug":"the-paradox-of-ai-assistance-better-results-worse-thinking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/2026\/01\/05\/the-paradox-of-ai-assistance-better-results-worse-thinking\/","title":{"rendered":"The Paradox of AI Assistance: Better Results, Worse Thinking"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-uagb-image aligncenter uagb-block-4f40d5ed wp-block-uagb-image--layout-default wp-block-uagb-image--effect-static wp-block-uagb-image--align-center\"><figure class=\"wp-block-uagb-image__figure\"><img decoding=\"async\" srcset=\"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/ER25_151_RelatedImage_1600x650-600x244.jpg ,https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/ER25_151_RelatedImage_1600x650.jpg 780w, https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/ER25_151_RelatedImage_1600x650.jpg 360w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 480px) 150px\" src=\"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/ER25_151_RelatedImage_1600x650-600x244.jpg\" alt=\"&quot; &quot;\" class=\"uag-image-29722\" width=\"677\" height=\"275\" title=\"ER25_151_RelatedImage_1600x650\" loading=\"lazy\" role=\"img\"\/><figcaption class=\"uagb-image-caption\">Credit: agsandrew \ufeff\/ Shutterstock.com \u00a9 2025<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">When I began college in 2022, the name &#8220;ChatGPT&#8221; was meaningless to me. The idea of using artificial intelligence (AI) still seemed like science fiction. Yet, less than three years later, as I complete my final year as an undergraduate, not a day goes by that I do not hear about AI in school, at work, or in personal conversations. I now use AI tools regularly to help draft emails, edit papers, and summarize articles. Some of my peers use AI more often and for a wider range of tasks, including making grocery lists, providing career advice, and even seeking mental health therapy. Generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) has drastically evolved in recent years, becoming ubiquitous across higher education and in everyday life. While there are pros and cons to its development, research on the impact of AI on human cognition, including long-term cognitive development and decision-making, is just beginning to emerge. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">[Kate Hurley, research intern at University of Michigan Information and Technology Services, explores] recent research suggesting that reliance on AI tools may pose risks to cognitive development and erode critical thinking skills \u2014 particularly for younger users \u2014 and call for a more mindful and intentional integration of these technologies into the daily lives of young people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/er.educause.edu\/articles\/2025\/12\/the-paradox-of-ai-assistance-better-results-worse-thinking\">Read the full article on EDUCAUSE<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A student reflects on how generative artificial intelligence is reshaping learning and cognitive development, urging colleges and universities to guide students toward responsible uses of AI to preserve critical thinking skills.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29722,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","_umich_oidc_access":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[61,942,1052],"class_list":["post-29720","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus-news","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-gpt"],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/ER25_151_RelatedImage_1600x650.jpg",1600,650,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/ER25_151_RelatedImage_1600x650-400x266.jpg",400,266,true],"medium":["https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/ER25_151_RelatedImage_1600x650-300x122.jpg",300,122,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/ER25_151_RelatedImage_1600x650-768x312.jpg",665,270,true],"large":["https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/ER25_151_RelatedImage_1600x650-600x244.jpg",600,244,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/ER25_151_RelatedImage_1600x650-1536x624.jpg",1536,624,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/ER25_151_RelatedImage_1600x650.jpg",1600,650,false],"excerpt-thumbnail":["https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/ER25_151_RelatedImage_1600x650-200x140.jpg",200,140,true],"themonic-thumbnail":["https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/ER25_151_RelatedImage_1600x650-60x42.jpg",60,42,true],"ioslider-thumbnail":["https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/ER25_151_RelatedImage_1600x650-658x300.jpg",658,300,true],"post-thumbnail":["https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/ER25_151_RelatedImage_1600x650-665x270.jpg",665,270,true],"400x250-crop":["https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/ER25_151_RelatedImage_1600x650-400x250.jpg",400,250,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"News Staff","author_link":"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/author\/mitnewsadm\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"A student reflects on how generative artificial intelligence is reshaping learning and cognitive development, urging colleges and universities to guide students toward responsible uses of AI to preserve critical thinking skills.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29720","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29720"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29720\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29724,"href":"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29720\/revisions\/29724"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29722"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29720"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29720"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29720"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}