How AI and social media contribute to ‘brain rot’

A.I. search tools, chatbots and social media are associated with lower cognitive performance, studies say. What to do? — Derek Abella/The New York Times

Last spring, Shiri Melumad, a professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, gave a group of 250 people a simple writing assignment: Share advice with a friend on how to lead a healthier lifestyle.

To come up with tips, some were allowed to use a traditional Google search, while others could rely only on summaries of information generated automatically with Google’s artificial intelligence.