THE GUARDIAN: Recent research suggests our brain power is in decline. Is offloading our cognitive work to AI driving this trend?
- Liviu Poenaru
- 5 days ago
- 2 min read
Apr. 21, 2025
The argument that we are becoming less intelligent draws from several studies. Some of the most compelling are those that examine the Flynn effect – the observed increase in IQ over successive generations throughout the world since at least 1930, attributed to environmental factors rather than genetic changes. But in recent decades, the Flynn effect has slowed or even reversed.
In the UK, James Flynn himself showed that the average IQ of a 14-year-old dropped by more than two points between 1980 and 2008. Meanwhile, global study the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) shows an unprecedented drop in maths, reading and science scores across many regions, with young people also showing poorer attention spans and weaker critical thinking.
Nevertheless, while these trends are empirical and statistically robust, their interpretations are anything but. “Everyone wants to point the finger at AI as the boogeyman, but that should be avoided,” says Elizabeth Dworak, at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, who recently identified hints of a reversal of the Flynn effect in a large sample of the US population tested between 2006 and 2018.
Intelligence is far more complicated than that, and probably shaped by many variables – micronutrients such as iodine are known to affect brain development and intellectual abilities, likewise changes in prenatal care, number of years in education, pollution, pandemics and technology all influence IQ, making it difficult to isolate the impact of a single factor.
“We don’t act in a vacuum, and we can’t point to one thing and say, ‘That’s it,’” says Dworak.
Still, while AI’s impact on overall intelligence is challenging to quantify (at least in the short term), concerns about cognitive offloading diminishing specific cognitive skills are valid – and measurable.
Studies have suggested that the use of AI for memory-related tasks may lead to a decline in an individual’s own memory capacity.
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