Search engines, GPS maps and other tech can alter our ability to learn and remember. Now scientists are working out what AI might do
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Various studies paint a complicated picture. Some do suggest that the Internet and digital technologies impair or otherwise alter performance on specific learning and memory tasks. People who use GPS devices to navigate seem worse at recalling routes, for instance. Ward, who is a psychologist at the University of Texas at Austin, has found that Googling information gives people an inflated sense of their own knowledge1. But there is no convincing evidence that the technology is having a broader detrimental effect on memory, researchers say. Claims, such as ‘Google is making us stupid’, are “overstatements”, says Elizabeth Marsh, a memory researcher at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina.
The revolution in artificial intelligence (AI) is raising a host of questions. Large language models (LLMs) that power tools such as ChatGPT are rapidly being incorporated into search engines and other software, which means they are becoming part of everyday experiences for most people.
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