The question of whether the internet and emerging technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) are altering our ability to remember and learn has sparked significant debate. As digital tools, search engines, and AI models such as ChatGPT become increasingly integrated into our daily lives, scientists are beginning to examine their potential impact on memory.
Adrian Ward, a psychologist at the University of Texas at Austin, recently experienced firsthand how technology might be affecting his memory. After relying on Apple Maps for years, Ward found himself lost in his own city of Austin. His experience highlighted how heavily people have come to depend on devices and applications for navigation, making them more prone to forget things they previously learned. “I just instinctively put on the map and do what it says,” Ward said. His experience is part of a broader concern that the internet may be undermining our memory, a phenomenon some have coined as ‘digital amnesia.’
While this idea, according to The Nature, has gained traction in popular discourse, including terms like “brain rot” (named Oxford University Press’s word of the year), studies suggest a more nuanced picture. Research indicates that while certain technologies, such as GPS devices, may hinder recall for specific tasks (like navigating), there’s little evidence that the internet is causing a widespread decline in memory. As Elizabeth Marsh, a memory researcher at Duke University, explains, claims like “Google is making us stupid” are overstatements.
The rise of AI, particularly generative tools such as large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT, introduces new dimensions to this debate. AI’s ability to provide quick answers and generate text is altering how people interact with information. Some experts fear that reliance on AI could make individuals more “cognitively lazy,” potentially even planting false memories. Andrew Hoskins, a researcher at the University of Edinburgh, raises concerns about AI-generated “deadbots,” digital avatars of deceased people, which can say things they never did, thus reshaping memories of the past.
Despite these fears, scientists emphasize that technology, including the internet, has long been used as an external memory aid. From the printing press to modern smartphones, humanity has relied on tools to store and recall information. However, as Ward points out, the ease of accessing information on the internet has led to “cognitive offloading,” where people rely on devices instead of their own memory, freeing up mental bandwidth for other tasks.
The idea of ‘transactive memory’—sharing the responsibility for memory with others, including external tools—helps explain why people use the internet so frequently as a memory bank. Ward’s research shows that people who search for answers online feel more confident in their knowledge, even if they didn’t memorize the information themselves. This false sense of confidence might lead individuals to forget that they didn’t actually retain the information, as Marsh’s experiments suggest.
While some studies have pointed to specific cognitive declines linked to technology use, such as deteriorating spatial memory from frequent GPS use, the broader implications remain uncertain. In fact, many researchers, including Harvard’s Daniel Schacter, argue that there’s little evidence that the internet or other digital technologies are leading to any general decline in memory abilities. Schacter suggests that age-related changes in memory could be misinterpreted as the result of digital technology.
The advent of AI tools, however, may present unique challenges for memory and learning. Generative AI systems, like ChatGPT, create responses in real-time and can even “hallucinate” incorrect information, leading people to internalize inaccuracies. As Jason Burton, a decision-making expert at the Max Planck Institute, notes, relying on AI to generate answers without thinking deeply could result in the loss of valuable cognitive skills, particularly among students.
Moreover, AI’s ability to curate and create personalized memories—such as organizing photos into life events or generating digital avatars of the deceased—raises questions about how these technologies may influence our personal recollections. Hoskins warns that these “new technologies” may dramatically alter the way future generations remember their lives.
While much of the current research on AI’s impact on memory is still in its infancy, neuroscientists like Tali Sharot of University College London caution that the rapid pace of AI development makes it difficult to fully understand its effects. As Sharot points out, AI’s impact on memory and learning is “really hard to study” because of how quickly it is evolving.
As AI and the internet continue to reshape our daily lives, the science on memory and cognition is still unfolding. But one thing is clear: both the benefits and risks of these technologies deserve careful examination. As researchers grapple with the complexities of how AI and digital tools affect our minds, we will likely see new insights emerge about the profound changes these technologies could bring.
