Does AI Make Students Dumber, or Is Our Definition of Intelligence Obsolete?
Source: Wikipedia Introduction The conversation around AI and education often begins with a familiar accusation: students who use tools like ChatGPT are somehow cheating themselves, producing shallow work, or “learning less.” A recent MIT study has fueled the narrative, suggesting that AI usage diminishes cognitive engagement and recall. On the surface, the conclusion appears straightforward. But beneath the data lies a deeper issue: the debate itself is anchored in an outdated metaphysics of presence. The underlying assumption of this discourse is that intelligence is something wholly present, a possession of the mind, measurable once the tools are removed. In other words, cognition is treated as a book: bounded, stable, and self-contained. AI disrupts this illusion. It does not make students less intelligent. It exposes the obsolescence of a paradigm that still evaluates thought by what can be internalized and recalled. The old measures were never neutral; they were logocentric, ...
