What happens to your brain when you use AI? Neil deGrasse Tyson and co-host Chuck Nice and Gary O’Reilly explore current research into how large language models affect our cognition, memory, and learning with Nataliya Kosmyna, research scientist at the MIT Media Lab. Is AI good for us?
Nataliya describes her experiment comparing students writing essays with three methods: ChatGPT, Google, or just their own brains. What happened when groups swapped? Why did the “LLM group” show the least functional connectivity in the brain, while Google users lit up their visual cortex? Why did so many students fail to recall or even quote their own work? Neil and Nataliya unpack how timing, cognitive load, and brain struggle are essential for true learning.
We explore cognitive load theory, video game design, and whether doctors relying on AI could lose diagnostic skills. How much AI support is too much? Could AI free up tasks so we can use our cognitive energy elsewhere? Or does it rob us of our brain power? We discuss the efficiency of the brain versus machine learning, the risks of AI companionship amplifying loneliness (or even AI psychosis) to how education must adapt for a generation raised with AI. What happens when children grow up never learning the skills that AI replaces? Does outsourcing brain work free us to be more creative or leave us dependent?
We discuss the guardrails and the crisis across schooling. How do we adapt the education system around these tools? What do we stand to lose? What do we stand to gain? Does this mean pivoting the focus away from grades and towards a more process and learning focus? Learn about BCI, brain-computer interfaces, and whether someday we’ll have LLMs in our heads. If we have all of the world's information uploaded, will we need higher education? We will all say “I know kung fu” like in the Matrix?
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Timestamps:
00:00 - Introduction: Nataliya Kosmyna
04:45 - The Experiment
17:20 - Our Energy Consumption vs. LLM
21:59 - Our Cognitive Load
26:02 - Working Memory vs. Lookup
30:09 - Are We Freeing Up Our Mental Energy?
35:21 - Grading the Essays
44:40 - AI in Place of Human Connection
52:49 - Shifting Focus Back to Humans
54:53 - Changing School Around Technologies
1:06:30 - More Studies & Guardrails
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