The ever-present hum of AI is inescapable and overwhelming. You see it when you Google search for a question, when you open Instagram, and even when it tries to summarize an iMessage from your mom. Perhaps it will always be there; maybe it will only grow. Like the Industrial Revolution, we feel pressured to adapt —or risk being left behind.Â
One popular use of AI, especially among students like us, is ChatGPT. Its uses vary from answering basic questions and giving advice, all the way to cheating through quizzes and writing entire essays. Such use doesn’t come without its consequences. A paper released in June 2025 discussed the findings of an MIT Media Lab study on ChatGPT’s impact on critical thinking skills. They had one group write an essay using ChatGPT, one using Google search, and one using only their own brains. The researchers found that “cognitive activity scaled down in relation to external tool use”–the more tools used, the less connectivity throughout the brain’s networks —and that “over four months, LLM users consistently underperformed at neural, linguistic, and behavioral levels.” They noted that the brain-only group utilized creativity and memory, while the ChatGPT group produced similar essays and paid little attention overall to the work they had ‘written.’ No matter how useful one might think generative AI can be, this is absolutely not what it was intended for, nor is it how it should be used. Our brains need to be mentally stimulated to stay sharp, and there’s nowhere we should be pushing our intellectual bounds more than in college.Â
I’m reminded of when I was in a lecture and I overheard ‘Thank God I can just use ChatGPT,’ and it makes me wonder how many of my peers choose to skip out on the act of thinking. I don’t want to fault anyone for defaulting to the easier option; it is easier to copy and paste a question into ChatGPT and to have it provide you information or analysis that it might have taken you longer to come up with on your own. But at a college level, it’s hard to see the need for it. As students who are lucky enough to be in higher education, we pay thousands of dollars to take courses–even on Bright Futures, as many of us at the University of Florida are, we chose not to make money in the workforce in order to attend college–so what is the fervent desire to learn as little as possible while we’re here? Cheating on tests gets you nowhere now that we’re out of high school. (Remember the good old days of cheating in high school before AI? When you had to Google search and hope the answers came up in a little box at the top?) Now, the courses we choose to take directly impact our future careers and set us up with problem-solving and critical-thinking skills that help us to become successful as adults. Actually learning the content is important, as is learning to study and to recall. Thinking is fun. Not to mention, I’m sure we’d all like our future doctors and lawyers to know what they’re talking about.Â
I believe that part of studying a major and earning a degree is the small tasks–researching questions and reading articles, rereading a paragraph until it makes sense. By using generative AI, you could lose out on the strength you build through making yourself do the work. MIT’s study emphasizes the detrimental effect on learning, especially for children’s development, where they emphasize that generative AI should be avoided at the preschool and elementary levels. Even for us, as students who are still growing and learning, it just doesn’t make sense to rely on something that does the thinking for you. The effects of this long-term are deeply unknown. I wonder if we want to be a future case study.Â
Additionally, MIT News explains the environmental impact of generative AI. The most obvious one is its electricity demand: “A generative AI training cluster might consume seven or eight times more energy than a typical computing workload,” which results in a large release of carbon dioxide due to the lack of sustainable ways to power the data centers. They also require plenty of water to cool down the computers in the data centers, much more than the average city or environment is prepared to handle. Your first thought might be–well, just choosing not to use ChatGPT isn’t going to fix the environmental impact. The issue is similar to that of recycling. We all have to put in a slight effort (maybe to simply Google something instead of asking ChatGPT) in order to make a broader difference. It can start with you.Â
I think it’s hard to admit, sometimes, when we become dependent, we don’t want to realize that our ‘just using it for this or that’ has developed into using it for problems we once could have solved on our own. Tech industries want the average person to be compliant. They want you to be addicted to your phone and to their AI chatbot. We resist by continuing to pursue knowledge for ourselves and not allowing our thoughts to be shaped by an algorithm.Â
To reduce my overall technology usage, I’ve been trying to regain my attention span and focus on one task at a time, without distractions from my phone. Delete apps you don’t need, and set limits on the ones you’re addicted to. With less time spent on your phone, the craving for a quick hit of immediate entertainment or to have your assignments done for you will decrease. It’s good to be bored. It’s good to do hard things.Â
There is an immense pressure to cave and use ChatGPT when so many of your peers see no problem with doing assignments the easier way–but you don’t have to give in to it. You’re smart and capable! You can solve problems! Pushing your brain to really think in a world full of short-form content and immediate gratification will only help you. Plus, your professors have PhDs; don’t insult them by giving them AI assignments. You (and I) don’t need ChatGPT.Â
I’d like to end with a quote I found fitting from Fritz Lang’s “Metropolis,” a 1927 sci-fi film. In critic Lane Roth’s review, the film depicts technological progress as subjugating man instead of freeing him.Â
“Get your women, your sons,Â
from the workers’ city!Â
Let no one stay behind!Â
Death to the machines – !!!”Â