--- title: Is Using ChatGPT to Write Your Essay Bad for Your Brain? description: Researchers at MIT’s Media Lab set out to determine whether ChatGPT and large language models (LLM) are eroding critical thinking. canonical: https://time.com/7298299/chatgpt-bad-for-brain-study/ author: TIME Video article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2025-06-27T18:35:50.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T08:53:35.390Z article:section: Health og:title: Is Using ChatGPT to Write Your Essay Bad for Your Brain? og:description: Researchers at MIT’s Media Lab set out to determine if ChatGPT and large language models are eroding critical thinking. og:url: https://time.com/7298299/chatgpt-bad-for-brain-study/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8ebb3c2c9fdaea42/6998c7e393610c2982c2fc46/GettyImages-1250355129_5bebab.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 5300 og:image:height: 2981 og:image:alt: Photo Illustration Of ChatGPT OpenAI With Logo og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Is Using ChatGPT to Write Your Essay Bad for Your Brain? twitter:description: Researchers at MIT’s Media Lab set out to determine if ChatGPT and large language models are eroding critical thinking. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8ebb3c2c9fdaea42/6998c7e393610c2982c2fc46/GettyImages-1250355129_5bebab.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Is Using ChatGPT to Write Your Essay Bad for Your Brain? New MIT Study Explained. > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: August 2026. ## TIME Health Matters: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition Health Matters is one of seven email newsletters published by TIME, the news organization founded in 1923. The latest health news and expert advice on living well. Health Matters makes the fast-moving world of health more useful, surprising and human, from the latest science and medical breakthroughs to practical ideas for living better. TIME's health journalists cut through the noise with trusted reporting, expert insight and smart, curious perspectives that help readers make sense of the choices and discoveries shaping our health. 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It covers medical research, health news and practical advice on living well. #### Where can I get reliable health news by email? Health Matters is TIME's daily health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free daily newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. by [TIME Video](https://time.com/author/time-video/) ## TIME Video Jun 27, 2025 6:35 PM UTC  Photo illustration showing ChatGPT and OpenAI research laboratory logo and inscription at a mobile phone smartphone screen on a keyboard. Open AI is an app using artificial intelligence technology. Italy is the first European country to ban and block the robot Chat GPT application and website. ChatGPT is an artificial-intelligence (AI) chatbot developed by OpenAI and launched in November 2022 using reinforcement learning techniques both from machine and human feedback. Amsterdam, the Netherlands on April 1, 2023 (Photo by Nicolas Economou/NurPhoto via Getty Images) Photo illustration showing ChatGPT and OpenAI research laboratory logo and inscription at a mobile phone smartphone screen on a keyboard. Open AI is an app using artificial intelligence technology. Italy is the first European country to ban and block the robot Chat GPT application and website. ChatGPT is an artificial-intelligence (AI) chatbot developed by OpenAI and launched in November 2022 using reinforcement learning techniques both from machine and human feedback. Amsterdam, the Netherlands on April 1, 2023 (Photo by Nicolas Economou/NurPhoto via Getty Images) NurPhoto via Getty Images—Nicolas Economou/NurPhoto by [TIME Video](https://time.com/author/time-video/) ## TIME Video Jun 27, 2025 6:35 PM UTC TIME reporter Andrew Chow discussed the findings of a new study about how ChatGPT affects critical thinking with Nataliya Kosymyna. Kosymyna was part of a team of researchers at MIT’s Media Lab who set out to determine whether ChatGPT and large language models (LLMs) are eroding critical thinking, and the study returned some concerning results. The study divided 54 subjects into three groups, and asked them to write several essays using OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google’s search engine, and nothing at all, respectively. Researchers used an EEG to record the writers’ brain activity. What they found was that of the three groups, the ChatGPT users had the lowest brain engagement and consistently underperformed at neural, linguistic and behavioral levels. Over the course of several months, the ChatGPT users got lazier with each subsequent essay, often resorting to copy and paste. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/7298299/chatgpt-bad-for-brain-study/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/7298299/chatgpt-bad-for-brain-study/"},"headline":"Is Using ChatGPT to Write Your Essay Bad for Your Brain? 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