Is ChatGPT Devaluing University Education in the UK & US?
The rise of AI, heralded by many as the gateway to a higher level of human performance, is fast becoming a source of great concern for educational institutions around the world.
Since the launch of ChatGPT in late 2022, AI chatbots have become widely used by students, whether they're handing in middle school homework or submitting theses as postgraduates.
Whilst many universities have welcomed partnerships with firms like OpenAI, integrating the technologies into teaching practices, recent investigations have found that the endemic use of AI is starting to stunt the cognitive abilities of students.
A study conducted by MIT researchers casts a spotlight on the potential cognitive trade-offs associated with using ChatGPT. MIT's research suggests that this AI tool might adversely impact critical thinking skills among its users should they become too dependent on it.
The details of MIT's research
MIT’s Media Lab spearheaded a study involving 54 individuals aged between 18 and 39 from the Boston metropolitan area over an extended period.
The participants were divided into groups and tasked with complete essay-writing exercises based on a series of standardised academic prompts. These tests were conducted under a set of different conditions: some were able to use ChatGPT, some were allowed to use Google to search things, others were given no technological support whatsoever.
During the experiment, each person was hooked up to electroencephalography (EEG) equipment which monitored the neural activity across 32 regions of their brains.
The findings were stark.
Firstly, MIT's researchers observed a marked decline in mental engagement among ChatGPT users across neural, linguistic and behavioural dimensions.
Participants in this group showed a far smaller level of executive control and attentional engagement compared to their counterparts. This decline in engagement showed in the essays this group produced.
MIT found that work made using ChatGPT was repetitive, stale and contained very little in the way of fresh perspective. The university asked English teachers to critique these AI-assisted essays, with some describing the work as "soulless".
On the other hand, those participants that worked without the aid of technology ended up exhibiting a far higher level of neural connectivity, particularly noticeable in alpha, theta and delta wave frequencies. MIT notes that patterns like this are linked to creativity, memory and the comprehension of language.
“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’,” says Nataliya Kosmyna, Lead Author and Research Scientist at MIT Media Lab.
“I think that would be absolutely bad and detrimental. Developing brains are at the highest risk.”
Education is already in danger
In 2025, several high-profile stories have emerged detailing the negative impacts that models like ChatGPT are having on the learning of students.
In June, the Guardian reported that thousands of university students in the UK had been caught using ChatGPT to write their essays. Likewise, New York Magazine published a widely-consumed feature examining the rampant use of AI in colleges across the US.
Dr Craig Reeves, Senior Lecturer at London's Birkbeck University believes that many educational institutions are hiding the scale of the problem because they are worried about how expulsions will impact their revenues.
"The real motivation may be that institutions relying on high-fee-paying international cohorts would rather not know; the motto is 'see no cheating, hear no cheating, lose no revenue". The political economy of higher education is driving a scandal of unreliable degree-awarding and the deskilling of graduates on a mass scale," he says.
In the US, professors feel a similar way. Troy Jollimore, Ethics Professor at Cal State Chico, believes that a whole generation's education is at risk.
“Massive numbers of students are going to emerge from university with degrees, and into the workforce, who are essentially illiterate,” he said. “Both in the literal sense and in the sense of being historically illiterate and having no knowledge of their own culture, much less anyone else’s.”
Brian Patrick Green, Tech Ethics Scholar at Santa Clara University, say“We’re talking about an entire generation of learning perhaps significantly undermined here.”
Craig shares these sentiments. "If our pilots couldn’t fly planes themselves or our surgeons didn’t know our arses from our elbows, we’d be worried," he explains.
"But we surely want our lawyers, teachers, engineers, nurses, accountants, social workers etc. to have real knowledge and skills too."
Explore the latest edition of Technology Magazine and be part of the conversation at our global conference series, Tech & AI LIVE.
Discover all our upcoming events and secure your tickets today.
Technology Magazine is a BizClik brand
