Don’t melt your eyebrows.

Aaron Nay

The last 100 years have seen incredible technological advancements. TV didn’t exist a century ago, and now we constantly view the world through screens. The latest development to take over the world — unsurprising to anyone — is artificial intelligence.

Growing up, I dreamed of having a digital assistant that could do calculations while I piloted a spacecraft through unknown galaxies. I’m not an astronaut, and AI isn’t all-knowing yet. Instead, the real challenge is deciding how and when to use it. What counts as acceptable help, and what happens to our learning when we rely on it immediately? 

Researchers at MIT tried to answer these questions. Their studies — rigorous and thorough, though I won’t go into detail here — showed that people who turn to AI first experience a decline in critical thinking, a loss of opinion, and weaker information retention. Meanwhile, people who generate original ideas and then turn to AI to refine them don’t suffer those drawbacks. 

“Using AI as your first step in critical thinking is a bit like trying to warm your face in a microwave because the walk home was nippy. It might seem fine at first, but keep it up, and you’ll end up with melted eyebrows and a really bad headache.”

Basically, we slowly stop caring. 

Using AI as your first step in critical thinking is a bit like trying to warm your face in a microwave because the walk home was nippy. It might seem fine at first, but keep it up, and you’ll end up with melted eyebrows and a really bad headache. 

The point is, tools have intended purposes. AI is meant to supplement and enhance, not replace our beautifully imperfect minds. It makes tedious tasks easier, but relying on it to answer every question won’t create new thoughts — only recycled ones. 

Right now, the risks aren’t obvious. But younger generations may see us leaning on AI, mistake it for wisdom, and think our melted eyebrows look cool. Use AI as the tool it’s meant to be. Control it, so it doesn’t control you. It’s how we set a precedent for AI usage and prevent a trend of melted eyebrows that no one wants to see.