Artificial Intelligence and Mental Laziness: Are We on the Brink of a Cognitive Crisis?
When we reflect on the impacts of ancient civilizations, such as the Egyptian and Babylonian, we find that humans were able to build amazing sciences in eras that did not know electricity, lasers, or spacecraft, leaving a legacy immortalized in the pages of history.
However, these civilizations fell into a strange abyss, how did they reach this scientific elevation and what led to their collapse?
Historically, disasters like the burning of the Library of Alexandria in the Ptolemaic era caused a delay in human civilization of nearly a thousand years due to the loss of knowledge, and even the Library of Baghdad, which was destroyed by the Mongols in the Abbasid era, repeated this scenario.
But artificial intelligence poses a greater threat:
Humans have not just lost books; some have begun to abandon thinking itself, delegating the tasks of innovation and analysis to chatbots.
* A Permanent Partner or a Cognitive Crutch?
Artificial intelligence is no longer just an assisting tool; it has become a permanent partner in thinking, writing, and decision-making.
With the accelerating reliance of humans on generative AI models in work, education, and daily life, concerns are rising about the erosion of basic cognitive skills and the decline of critical thinking, which researchers have termed "long-term mental laziness."
These concerns are no longer mere philosophical assumptions or ethical warnings; they are now supported by recent academic studies comparing the quick gains from artificial intelligence with what we lose in original mental capabilities.
* Delegating Thinking: The Hidden Face of Artificial Intelligence
Studies indicate that intensive reliance on AI tools enhances what is known as "Cognitive Offloading," meaning delegating analysis, memory, and idea formulation to external tools instead of exercising the mind.
A study published in 2025 in the journal Societies, which included 666 participants from various age and educational backgrounds, showed a clear negative relationship between repeated reliance on AI and the level of critical thinking, especially among younger groups.
Researcher Michael Gurlich concluded that AI may not only shorten the path but may eliminate the entire mental journey.
* A "Cognitive Debt" in the Brain
The situation becomes more serious when studying brain activity itself.
A study by the MIT Media Lab in 2025 divided participants into three groups:
• A group relying on AI for writing
• A group using search engines
• A group working without any digital tools
The results showed that AI users had weaker neural connectivity during thinking and writing tasks, with less activity in memory and focus areas, and difficulty remembering or explaining what they had written themselves.
Researchers termed this condition "cognitive debt accumulation," where mental effort is saved in the short term at the expense of weakening cognitive abilities in the long term.
* Skills Most Vulnerable to Erosion
According to systematic reviews of research between 2023 and 2025, the skills most affected by excessive reliance on AI include:
• Critical and analytical thinking
• Working memory
• The ability to solve complex problems
• Innovation and generating original ideas
A comprehensive review published in the journal Information Discovery and Delivery in 2025 confirmed that AI can enhance performance when used as an assisting tool, but it becomes a weakness when it turns into a complete substitute for human thinking.
* Close Experiences Warn of Risks
This scenario is not new;
A decade ago, smartphones raised similar concerns. Neuroscience studies linked smartphone addiction to memory decline, reduced focus, and diminished innovation capacity.
A study in the journal Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience showed less activity in the prefrontal cortex responsible for creative thinking among smartphone addicts.
The fundamental difference now, according to researchers, is that the phone stored information, while AI has begun to think instead of humans, multiplying the risks, especially in education and cognitive work.
The next generation may become capable of asking the machine, but unable to think without it.
* The Danger and the Challenge
A report from Nature magazine in February 2025 indicated that AI may change learning and memory mechanisms more profoundly than search engines or GPS systems, with warnings about unconscious reliance on it in the early stages of cognitive formation.
Despite these risks, scientists do not assert that AI will inevitably destroy minds; rather, they emphasize the method of use as a crucial factor;
AI can be a lever for innovation if used as an assisting tool, but it may become a permanent cognitive crutch leading to mental laziness.
Hundreds of billions of dollars are being pumped into emerging technology, and innovative minds and young entrepreneurs indicate tremendous potential.
Today, AI is the biggest gamble in human history: it could either produce a generation capable of touching the sky, or realize the scenario predicted by Elon Musk of turning "humans into apes."
