AI efficiency, ability to think: A reflection

📅 Published: August 16, 2025

📰 Source: theindependent

Curated by AllZimNews.com

With the use of large language models (LMMs) lurks a pressing question: are these tools truly empowering us, or quietly eroding our capacity for independent thought and critical reflection?

As Zimbabwe’s digital landscape expands, this debate no longer belongs in ivory tower seminars alone; it affects every home, classroom and boardroom.

At its best, an LLM can summarise a dense legal statute, suggest improvements to a business proposal or even translate provincial news articles into fluent English or Shona.

Many of us have felt the relief of offloading mundane writing tasks to a machine, freeing up time for other priorities.

But efficiency is never neutral.

It embodies choices about what work we value and what effort we are willing to relinquish.

If “faster” replaces “better thought-through”, we risk sacrificing the very processes that nurture insight, innovation and sound judgement.

Researchers in the United States have warned of this pitfall.

A pioneering MIT study found that participants who drafted essays using ChatGPT not only engaged less critically with the content they produced, but also demonstrated weaker activation in brain regions linked to analysis and memory.

In contrast, those who wrote without AI assistance formed stronger neural connections and reported greater satisfaction with their work.

In plain terms, every shortcut we take with AI can chip away at the mental muscle we need to learn, remember and reflect.

There is also the growing danger of AI-driven echo chambers.