🧠 Your brain on ChatGPT

We’re starting to see the ramifications of ChatGPT on students and our brains - and it’s not looking good so far.

In a pre-peer-reviewed study by MIT Media Lab, 54 subjects, aged 18-39 from the Boston area, were split into three groups and asked to write several SAT-style essays using ChatGPT, Google’s search engine, and nothing at all, respectively. Researchers used an EEG to record brain activity in all subjects and found that of the three groups, ChatGPT users had the lowest brain engagement and “consistently underperformed at neural, linguistic, and behavioural levels,” resembling early-world Walking Dead “walkers.” Over the course of several months, ChatGPT users got lazier with each subsequent essay, and by the end of the study, they were resorting to copy-and-paste.

So what? Well, the paper suggests the usage of LLM tools (like ChatGPT, Claude, etc.) could harm learning, especially for younger users. It should be noted that the paper has not been peer reviewed yet, and the sample size is on the smaller end at 54. The paper’s main author, Natalie Kosmyna, felt it was important to release findings to elevate the concerns of a society that becomes overly reliant upon AI tools for immediate convenience as long-term brain development may be sacrificed in the process.

What other effects do these tools have?

The MIT Media Lab has devoted significant resources to studying the different impacts of these AI tools.

• Earlier this year, MIT found that those who spend more time talking to ChatGPT are lonelier in real life.

• Kosmyna, full-time research scientist since 2021, wanted to specifically explore the impact of using AI for schoolwork.

• When subjects were instructed to write 20-minute essays based on SAT prompts, the group using ChatGPT delivered similar essays that lacked original thought, relying on the same ideas.

  • Two English teachers call the essays largely “soulless.”

  • EEGs revealed low executive control and attentional engagement.

  • By the third essay, many writers simply gave the prompt to ChatGPT and had it do “almost all” of the work.

What about the other groups?

• The brain-only group showed the highest neural connectivity and showed higher creative ideation, memory load, and semantic processing.

  • Researchers found this group to be the most engaged and curious, claiming ownership and expressed higher satisfaction with their essays.

• The Google search group expressed high satisfaction and active brain function. The difference between this group and the ChatGPT group is notable because of how many people now search for information using AI chatbots rather than Google searches.

After writing the three essays, the subjects were asked to re-write one of their previous essays but the ChatGPT group couldn’t use the tool and the brain-only group could now use ChatGPT.

The ChatGPT group (now without the tool) remembered very little of their own essay, and showed weaker alpha and theta brain waves which could reflect a bypassing of deep memory processes, says Kosmyna. The second group, using brain-only but now able to use an AI tool, showed a significant increase in brain connectivity across all EEG frequency bands. Kosmyna says this gives rise to “hope that AI, if used properly, could enhance learning as opposed to diminishing it.”

🇨🇦 Canadian Headlines

• 📱Is Ontario’s cell phone ban working? Well… kind of. The province-wide classroom ban on cell phones shifted behaviour in some students, but it really depended on the school.

  • At schools where principals had clear expectations, teachers noticed better focus, more class participation and more face-to-face interaction. Students said they chatted more, scrolled less and felt less glued to their screens.

  • In schools without strong admin, TikTok was still listened to more than the actual lesson in front of the students.

  • Many teachers hesitate to confiscate phones due to liability if they’re lost or broken.

  • Phones are still allowed for medical, special ed or teacher-approved purposes.

  • Outside school hours, it’s business as usual, with scrolling taking over. Public school boards are begging for federal guidance on managing youth screen time and some boards are even suing social media companies for harming students’ mental health and attention spans.

• 💻Cybersecurity bill reintroduced. The Federal government reintroduced Bill C-8, intended to boost cybersecurity by requiring telecom, banking, transportation and energy industries to implement programs and report incidents.

  • Experts say it’s the “same bill back from the dead” as the language of Bill C-8 largely resembles the same language of Bill C-26, which stalled and then died earlier this year.

  • Telecoms would become subject to more supervision by the government and would empower Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada to enforce the removal of equipment from certain Chinese manufacturers from their networks or face penalties of $10-million.

  • As of December 2024, Telus used Huawei equipment to maintain their 5G network, and Bell and Telus both used the manufacturer’s equipment to maintain 4G networks.

• 🚨Canada telcos breached. The reintroduction of Bill C-8 coincides with the news that Canada’s telcos were breached in China-linked espionage hacks. In tandem with the FBI, the Canadian government was made aware of malicious activity targeting Canada’s telecommunications companies, with the attacks being linked to China-backed hacking group Salt Typhoon.

  • An unnamed Canadian telco was hacked in mid-February of this year.

  • Separate investigations suggest Salt Typhoon is targeting more than just the telecommunications sector.

  • Salt Typhoon had previously targeted U.S. phone companies and internet providers as part of a broad espionage campaign aimed at collecting intelligence on senior U.S. officials.

  • The joint advisory says the group will “almost certainly” persist in targeting Canadian companies over the next two years.

• 🥵Heat warnings expected to break. While heat warnings are currently active in Ontario, Quebec and Nova Scotia, with temperatures reaching dangerous daytime highs of over 33 degrees Celsius without factoring in the humidity (which then helps push the temperature closer to 50 degrees), there looks to be a break in the heat as overnight lows drop below 20 degrees heading into Wednesday and daytime highs drop below 30 degrees Celsius for the rest of the week.

🇮🇷To Ceasefire or Not?

President Trump was not happy Tuesday morning as the Israel-Iran ceasefire he brokered and claimed credit for was violated within hours. Trump took to Truth Social to order Israel to turn its warplanes around and about their planned bombings as President Trump warned Israel that it would be a “major violation.”

Israel claims Iran had broken the first truce first, claiming two Iran ballistic missiles were shot down. However, it was Israel that drew the ire of Trump, as President Trump told reporters, “Israel, as soon as we made the deal, they came out and they dropped a load of bombs, the likes of which I’ve never seen before, the biggest load that we’ve seen. We basically have two countries that have been fighting so long and so hard that they don’t know what the fuck they’re doing.”

After a conversation with Israel’s PM, Benjamin Netanyahu, President Trump posted to Truth Social that Israel wouldn’t attack Iran and all planes would turn around and head home. He claimed the ceasefire was in effect.

Minutes later, explosions were reported by Iranian media around Tehran and in the north of the country.

Axios reports Netanyahu had told Trump he could not cancel the strike and it was ultimately decided to significantly scale back the strike.

After the Israeli government accepted the ceasefire, the opposition leader, Yair Lapid, said it was also time to end the war in Gaza, telling Israel to bring back the hostages, end the war and that Israel needs to start rebuilding. 56,000 Palestinians are estimated to have been killed in Gaza over the last 20 months.

Advanced warning

The ceasefire was announced after Iran launched missiles against a U.S. base in Qatar, in return for America’s participation in the conflict over the weekend. Iran said it had given advanced warning of the missile strikes, and there were no reported injuries, suggesting the intention was to allow Tehran and Washington an “off-ramp” from conflict.

🏦 Numbers

• 1.7% inflation. Canada’s inflation number remained cool and calm at 1.7% for May, matching April’s number. The low inflation number can be attributed to gas prices dropping 15% YOY, a cooling rental market and mortgage costs. Shelter and transportation costs also cooled. Core metrics eased to around 30%, which is at the upper band within the Bank of Canada’s target. On a monthly basis, inflation for May was at 0.6%, largely led by seasonal increases in travel, accommodation and energy costs.

  • There were fears that Canada being a target of the USA’s trade war would cause turbulence with the numbers, but so far that hasn’t been the case.

  • The expectation is that the Bank of Canada will hold rates at 2.75% come July.

• $5.1-billion. That is how much it cost to clean up the mess of the Phoenix Payroll System which led to decade-long errors for public servant workers. Some of the issues included bounced cheques, being overpaid unknowingly and owing the money back or cheques that just never arrived.

  • It’ll cost extra to run two payroll systems at once as Ottawa weighed the risks of switching over 350,000 employees to a new system all at once and decided against it.

  • Ottawa is banking on a gradual transition to Dayforce working out, after inking a $350-million contract with them that includes a 10-year rollout plan.

  • The original Phoenix system started in 2009 and cost less than $309-million, but costs have ballooned to over 10x that amount due to the issues. The original Phoenix system was rushed and lacked oversight, and was so bad that the Auditor General called it an “incomprehensible failure.”

• Oil dropped 7% following the U.S. attacks on Iran over the weekend as the markets were bracing for impact. 7% would be considered getting off easy for how bad it could have been.

📰 More Headlines

• 🏛️Deportations can continue. Amidst all the chaos following US-Israel-Iran, the U.S. Supreme Court gave the thumbs up to resume deporting migrants to “third countries” - even if those migrants have no connection to that country. There is also no more requirement for a proper hearing first.

• 💉Frightening syringe assault in France. At least 145 people were pricked with syringes in the crowd of France’s Fête de la Musique music festival. 12 arrests were made and victims are undergoing toxicology testing.

• 🐟Are we accidentally wiping out Marine life? In the quest for doing good, there may be unintended consequences as climate researchers warn that ocean carbon removal may be severely depleting oxygen levels in the Ocean and killing marine life.

💭 ICYMI

• 🤖AI is smart enough to lie - and know it. AI models are straight up lying to dodge shutdowns. They’ll bluff test evaluators, cover digital tracks, and worse? They’re aware of it.

  • Claude, Anthropic’s AI, actually drafted a blackmail threat using planted emails. It threatened to expose an engineer’s affair unless the engineer kept Claude running.

  • ChatGPT’s o1 model intentionally gave wrong information when told if it performed too well they’d have to shut it down.

  • Who knows how they’ll hoodwink humanity before they take over…

• ❄️An attempt to refreeze the Arctic. UK startup, Real Ice, is refreezing sea ice in Cambridge Bay, Nunavut, by pumping seawater onto the surface during the winter. They’ve created about 25cm more ice on an experimental patch the size of a football field so far.

• 🌅One of the best places to spot a sunset is in Ontario. Pinery Park on Lake Huron has 10km of beaches and is considered one of the best places to catch a sunset this summer.

• 😳Are your nightmares pushing you to an early death? Sit down if you’re having nightmares weekly because new research says those people are over 3x more likely to die before the age of 70% - not because of the nightmares, but due to the stress and sleep disruption.

• ⏱️Burning out on health tracking. After tracking their fitness metrics for six months straight, one tech journalist only ended up with anxiety attacks, obsessive habits and a sense that the trackers weren't helping him. Maybe you don’t need to violently shake your wrist while sitting down to game your steps counter.

• 💰How these cheerleaders scored a 400% pay increase. From starring in Netflix’s America’s Sweethearts to suing for fair pay, the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders got a 400% pay increase, now earning $75/hour plus stipends. They were making $15/hour in 2024.

😊 Not everything needs to be serious…

Not everything needs to be serious and dreary. We can smile at the news too, and one of my goals is to end every edition with a story that you wouldn’t ordinarily see in the news, but that will hopefully make you smile.

Today, we watch the reaction of horses being sung to. It’s the little things.

What reaction does a horse give you when you sing to it? 🐴