inlandempire

Your Brain on ChatGPT: Accumulation of Cognitive Debt when Using an AI Assistant for Essay Writing Task

Project link: https://www.brainonllm.com/

Figures: https://www.brainonllm.com/figures

Paper on arxiv (pdf): https://arxiv.org/pdf/2506.08872

With today's wide adoption of LLM products like ChatGPT from OpenAI, humans and businesses engage and use LLMs on a daily basis. Like any other tool, it carries its own set of advantages and limitations. This study focuses on finding out the cognitive cost of using an LLM in the educational context of writing an essay.

We assigned participants to three groups: LLM group, Search Engine group, and Brain-only group, where each participant used a designated tool (or no tool in the latter) to write an essay. We conducted 3 sessions with the same group assignment for each participant. In the 4th session we asked LLM group participants to use no tools (we refer to them as LLM-to-Brain), and the Brain-only group participants were asked to use LLM (Brain-to-LLM). We recruited a total of 54 participants for Sessions 1, 2, 3, and 18 participants among them completed session 4.

We used electroencephalography (EEG) to record participants' brain activity in order to assess their cognitive engagement and cognitive load, and to gain a deeper understanding of neural activations during the essay writing task. We performed NLP analysis, and we interviewed each participant after each session. We performed scoring with the help from the human teachers and an AI judge (a specially built AI agent).

We discovered a consistent homogeneity across the Named Entities Recognition (NERs), n-grams, ontology of topics within each group. EEG analysis presented robust evidence that LLM, Search Engine and Brain-only groups had significantly different neural connectivity patterns, reflecting divergent cognitive strategies. Brain connectivity systematically scaled down with the amount of external support: the Brain‑only group exhibited the strongest, widest‑ranging networks, Search Engine group showed intermediate engagement, and LLM assistance elicited the weakest overall coupling. In session 4, LLM-to-Brain participants showed weaker neural connectivity and under-engagement of alpha and beta networks; and the Brain-to-LLM participants demonstrated higher memory recall, and re‑engagement of widespread occipito-parietal and prefrontal nodes, likely supporting the visual processing, similar to the one frequently perceived in the Search Engine group. The reported ownership of LLM group's essays in the interviews was low. The Search Engine group had strong ownership, but lesser than the Brain-only group. The LLM group also fell behind in their ability to quote from the essays they wrote just minutes prior.

As the educational impact of LLM use only begins to settle with the general population, in this study we demonstrate the pressing matter of a likely decrease in learning skills based on the results of our study. The use of LLM had a measurable impact on participants, and while the benefits were initially apparent, as we demonstrated over the course of 4 months, the LLM group's participants performed worse than their counterparts in the Brain-only group at all levels: neural, linguistic, scoring.

Additional details courtesy of user PCGamingMegaMod

Resetera users have discovered that both new owners named by Dark0ne work for a company called Chosen.

We partner with founders to help scale what they’ve built amplifying their impact, supporting their team and culture, and ensuring the business thrives for the long term.

From Chosen's "Why work with us?" section:

You’ve built something players love. We’re here to protect that magic and help it grow — with the care, creativity, and support it deserves.

It's vague to what extent this is a sale. Dark0ne mentioned the owners have "changed hands", but also mentions "I’ll also be working with the team to help guide the overall direction of the site, just without needing to be the person who signs off on every little thing and without taking responsibility for any and all things Nexus Mods".

In regards to Lifetime Premium, a Nexus Community Manager wrote this comment here:

Lifetime Premium means exactly that: Lifetime. There are no plans to revoke it. Beyond the fact that it wouldn’t make business sense, doing so would break trust with the community, which is the last thing we want. We’re committed to honouring the promises made to our supporters.

PDF : https://transfert.free.fr/pPgrKDc

Israel cancelled visas for 27 French left-wing lawmakers and officials days before their planned Sunday visit to Israel and Palestinian territories, the group said. The move comes days after Israel barred two UK Labour MPs from entering the country and amid tensions after Macron said France would soon recognise a Palestinian state, pressuring Netanyahu over Gaza conditions.

The delegation included National Assembly deputies Francois Ruffin, Alexis Corbière and Julie Ozenne from the Ecologist party, Communist deputy Soumya Bourouaha and Communist senator Marianne Margate.

The other members were left-wing town mayors and local lawmakers.

The statement denounced the ban as a "major rupture in diplomatic ties".