--- title: "Harvard Professor Says AI Users Are Losing Cognitive Abilities" description: "Notorious alien crank and Harvard physics professor Avi Loeb has noticed a troubling cognitive trend among the AI users in his life." date: "2026-03-03" modified: "2026-03-03" authors: - name: "Joe Wilkins" job_title: "Correspondent" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/jwilkins" url: "https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/harvard-avi-loeb-ai" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" - "Brain" - "Health & Medicine" - "Machine Learning" - "Neuroscience and Brain" --- # Harvard Professor Says AI Users Are Losing Cognitive Abilities ![A man in a black suit and tie wearing a white dunce cap with a red letter "D" on it. He is making a silly face, sticking out his tongue and picking his nose with his right hand. The background is bright yellow with a large red circle behind his head.]() *Illustration by Tag Hartman-Simkins / Futurism. Source: Getty Images* Harvard astronomer Avi Loeb is perhaps best known for raising eyebrows with public suggestions that [various]() [stellar]() [phenomena]() could be evidence of extraterrestrial civilization. It's controversial, to be sure — but if nothing else, at least Loeb's using his own brain, at a time when dependence on AI chatbots has never been higher. In a recent essay [on his personal blog](), the Harvard professor lamented the mental decay among the AI users in his life. "Recently, I noticed that some people around me are starting to lose their cognitive abilities as a result of excessive use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) platforms, such as ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini," Loeb wrote. "This phenomenon resembles muscle loss from excessive use of public transportation as a substitute for walking. In academia, the only reliable way of testing the cognitive abilities of students right now is by placing them in a Faraday cage." Nevermind studies showing that public transit users walk a [tremendous amount]() — a much better analogue would be [drivers](), really — Loeb is underscoring a real and growing concern by many researchers and educators. Since the rise of AI chatbots over the past few years, there have been plenty of [research papers](), [anecdotal evidence](), and [grim predictions]() outlining this exact phenomenon. As one [2025 study]() by Swiss researcher Michael Gerlich found, frequent use of AI tools can cause critical thinking abilities to atrophy, resulting in a "cognitive cost" among human users. As the number of AI users ticks up, the long-term risks of systemic intellectual debt only become more apparent. As [recent research]() by the Pew Research Center found, a massive number of school-aged teens are using AI to do their homework, with heavy use concentrated among minority and low-income students. As far as Loeb is concerned, he writes that the threat of this kind of societal cognitive impairment makes it important to push back against the idea of AI systems as a sort of magical stand-in for the human brain. "Regarding AI as similar to the beauty of the human mind is just like putting lipstick on a pig," he pontificates. "I am much more excited about the potential to discover truly alien intelligence from another star." **More on AI:** *[A Staggering Proportion of High School Kids Are Using AI to Do Their Homework, Which Is Probably Not Going to End Well]()* ## Author At Futurism, I focus on the intersection of technology and power — examining the economics, history, and politics behind today’s dystopian headlines. As a writer, I’m interested in topics ranging from AI’s impact on labor to startups nobody asked for. My prior work includes bylines in Jacobin, Verso, and Blue Labyrinths. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Forbes, The Guardian, MIT Technology Review, Time, The Nation, Mother Jones, The Verge, and Wired. I grew up in Michigan, attending Central Michigan University as well as Ball State University, where I earned a master of music. I now live in Brooklyn with my girlfriend and our cat Ziti. On weekends, you can find me hunched over a cold pint arguing geopolitics with the other transplants. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()