Artificial Intelligence Threatens Critical Thinking in Education Systems

Abstract

We examine how the increasing use of artificial intelligence (AI) in education—through tools that generate and summarize text, translate languages, and produce visual content—impacts students' critical thinking. While these technologies enhance personalized learning, broaden assessment strategies, and support data-driven policy decisions, we argue that their integration into the learning process carries unintended cognitive consequences. Specifically, we show that when students offload key tasks to AI systems, their cognitive load decreases in ways that weaken memory retention and reduce active engagement with content. This shift fosters a pattern of overreliance, as students increasingly depend on AI to perform intellectual tasks in their place. As a result, their ability to think critically, question information, and evaluate sources diminishes over time. We highlight this emerging dependency as a medium- to long-term threat to critical thinking and call for a more careful evaluation of how generative AI is used in education—not only in terms of its benefits, but also its influence on core cognitive processes. Finally, we propose targeted strategies to mitigate these effects and preserve students' critical capacities in AI-rich learning environments

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