Against “Brain Damage”

Summary

Mollick challenges sensational interpretations of AI studies and examines learning, idea generation and writing practices.

The essay distinguishes answer-seeking from pedagogically structured support and acknowledges that added instructional support complicates comparisons. It also recommends generating one’s own ideas before consulting AI.

A useful discussion prompt is to separate immediate performance, independent learning and diversity of ideas. These are different outcomes, rather than one blanket verdict on thinking.

The cited research is commentary on the results available at that time.