The use of AI is rapidly eroding the ability to critically think, read, and digest information.
In universities across the world, there has been a steep gradual uptrend of AI use for a myriad of tasks spanning from essays to daily tasks. In the 2025-2026 school year, the University of Glasgow reported that over 63m connections to ChatGPT and other AI services had occurred. This rampant use of AI is directly linked to anti-intellectualism and the continuous decline in reading across the world, particularly in the West. This reliance on AI is directly connected to cognitive offloading and the loss of the ability to think critically.
Like many universities across the world, University of Glasgow does not prohibit the use of AI. The student guidelines state that “rather than seek to prohibit your use of these tools, we want to support you in learning how to use them effectively, ethically, critically, and transparently.” The school, and many others across the world, recognize that AI may have some resourcefulness in academia. However, this staggering amount of connections to ChatGPT and other AI sites is concerning. Posing the question of why pay for tuition when you have AI do your work for you? What are you actually learning, and is it leaving a lasting impression?
Of young people aged 13 to 18, 66.5% of them report using AI, according to the annual literacy survey. Its most common uses are asking and answering questions, homework aid, and entertainment purposes. Many students and young people reported that they enjoy using it. However, the survey also found that, of children aged 8 to 18, only 36.1% enjoy reading and only 26.6% enjoy reading in their free time.
Across the West it has been found that on average, 54% of adults have a literacy below an 11 or 12 year old reading level, and 20% fall below 5th-grade level. The rate amongst young teenagers dropped a staggering 50% in recent years. The inability to read and critically think is eroding children’s skills in exams and other areas of their schoolwork. With a majority of students stating that their reading speed affects their ability to finish tests on time, their confidence going into exams, and that their skills in reading and writing holds them back academically.
Some early research has found that certain skills get weaker when you rely on AI, even for simple tasks. While other studies suggest that the link may be more complex, the effect on cognitive thinking is present. AI is contributing to cognitive offloading –the use of external tools that reduce mental effort and memory demands. While it depends on how AI is used, in some cases it is able to strengthen or maintain these ties, it is often being used in a way that is eroding them. People, particularly students, often learn best when they actively engage in problem solving, and AI takes away the need to do that.
There is a cognitive paradox, in walking the line between erosion and enhancement, all depending on the use of the AI and how regulated it is. The erosion is found when learners, or anyone, depend too heavily on AI, it takes away the need to critically think, and over time, the ability to do so. This is where the problem for students arises. AI dependency erodes memory retention, problem solving and critical thinking, as well as creativity. All linking to the ability to have intellectual thoughts and discussions.
The loss of confidence in reading ability, literacy levels, and the cognitive offloading all connect to the deep rooted and fast rising problem of anti-intellectualism across the world and in academic settings. If students are not being pressured at the young teenage level to critically think and analyse it is completely lost by the time they get to higher education, if they get to higher education. The reliance of AI is eroding the brain of the necessary skills it requires to function properly.
While the idea of intellectualism has changed over years, shifting from narrow views rooted in colonialism and superiority to a more open view, this will all be lost when the ability to critically think goes with AI growth. The intellectual gap of the future will be those who can critically think and those who cannot.
The negative impacts of AI are countless not to mention the effects on the environment and local communities. Rampant AI use is eroding critical thinking skills, causing a devastating drop in literacy skills, affecting students test scores, and tallying up countless other negative impacts on the brain. The cons of AI use heavily outweigh the pros and people need to revert back to using their brain and critical thinking skills because AI is already establishing a new gap between those who can critically think and actively participate and those who are unable to.
