Most Will Get Dumber Using AI. You Don’t Have To.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology just threw a bucket of cold water on those of us who live in ChatGPT . Their latest brain-scan study didn’t whisper. It screamed: AI can make your mind go quiet!

Not in a Zen, meditative way. In a ‘not firing on all cylinders’ way.

• 📉 83% of participants who used ChatGPT couldn’t recall a single sentence they wrote.
• 🧠 Their brain activity dropped by nearly half and stayed low even after closing the app.
• ✅ Their writing was technically fine.
• ❌ But educators called it robotic, soulless, and stripped of depth.

And still, that’s not the whole story.

A Confession from the Inside

I use ChatGPT every single day. Not casually. Not occasionally. Daily. Strategically. Obsessively.

And here’s the truth: it brought me back to the page.

I was a journalist. A damn good one. Award-winning, deadline-crushing, and eventually, completely burnt out.

I walked away. And for a while, I didn’t write.

Then ChatGPT entered the chat.

Not to ghostwrite for me. But to challenge me. To break the ice. To meet me at the blank page without judgment. To offer something to push against.

AI didn’t just make writing easier. It made it possible again.

The MIT Study Meets the Human Story

The MIT researchers found that those who started writing without AI, then brought it in later, had higher memory, stronger brain activity, and more compelling output.

In other words: Start with the mind. Then layer in the machine.

And that resonates. When I write from scratch, my voice shows up. When I write with ChatGPT, my structure sharpens.

So How Do You Protect—and Build—Your Brain?

Let me keep it real. This is what’s worked for me:

• 📝 I write first. Even if it’s messy. Especially if it’s messy.
• 🤖 I treat ChatGPT like a sparring partner, not a ghostwriter.
• 🧠 I read everything aloud. If it doesn’t sound like me, I delete it.
• ⚡ I keep my brain sweaty. The friction is the point.

Because it’s not about whether you use AI. It’s about how.

AI Didn’t Steal My Voice. It Gave Me a Mirror.

Yes, AI can dampen memory. Blur authorship. Tempt you to skip the hard part. But it can also hand you back the mic if you start with your own story.

🧠 The strongest minds in the AI era won’t be the fastest. They’ll be the ones who know when to slow down and think.

I’m not afraid of losing my voice to AI. I’m afraid of never using it.

🔁 Save this for when the blank page stares back.

💬 Comment: How has AI changed the way you think?

❤️🔥 Tag someone whose brain you’re grateful hasn’t gone autopilot.