Is AI turning us into lazy thinkers?

Researching, writing, arguing – ChatGPT can now take many tasks off our hands. But what happens if we outsource more and more of our mental work to artificial intelligence? Will this make us smarter and more productive – or will we lose important skills in the long run? The science magazine NANO on 3sat explores these questions and visited researchers at the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien Media (IWM) in Tübingen to find answers.

How is AI changing the way we think?

The focus is on a question that Teresa Luther from the IWM’s Knowledge Construction lab is investigating in her PhD project: How does our thinking change when we write texts using ChatGPT? After all, writing involves far more than simply stringing words together. It also helps us to structure our thoughts, develop arguments and understand connections.

Writing experiment at the IWM: How do we use ChatGPT?

For the NANO feature, the television crew observed a writing experiment at the IWM. It became clear just how differently people use AI support. Together with Prof. Dr. Ulrike Cress, Director of the IWM and head of the lab, Teresa Luther explains what matters most when learning with AI – and why the best answers are not necessarily the ones that help us the most.