Generative AI And Brain Rot

Brain rot, in general, seems to be in vogue these days.

Allow me to clarify, discussions and handwringing about brain-rot are in vogue. As I will soon show you, there is a whole lot of active and quite boisterous chatter about the impacts of social media on our brains, especially those of the younger generations, for which the dire exhortation is made that the flotsam of online Internet-fed videos and podcasts are turning all our minds into utter mush.

Ergo, the seemingly proper or decidedly “in” way to describe the phenomena seems to be by referring to brain rot.

Before I get too far into this, there is even a feverish debate about how to suitably spell the wording of “brain rot”. Some say it is best to use two distinct words, namely the word “brain” followed by the word “rot”. I tend to like this version. Others prefer the hyphenated version, brain-rot. I admittedly use that version too. Still, others contend it should be smushed together as in brainrot. I’m not a fan of that variation and tend to avoid using it.

The reason I bring up brain-rot at all is that my prediction on this weighty matter is that we are soon headed beyond the angst and qualms about social media and heading pell-mell toward akin angst and qualms about generative AI. In short, you can anticipate that a heated tirade will arise that generative AI is leading us to brain-rot.

If you haven’t yet considered that facet, I’m proud to say that you are now about to get quite a telling about whether or not generative AI is going to cause massive large-scale widespread brain-rot.

It’s a matter well worth considering.

Let’s briefly back up.

For my ongoing readers, in today’s column, I am continuing my ongoing series about the impact of generative AI in the health and medical realm. The focus this time is once again on the mental health domain and examines whether the expanding use of generative AI is going to lead us to a glut of brain-rot.

Yes, you could say that conceiving of generative AI as a polluter of the mind that causes brain rot is most assuredly a concerted mental health topic. The aim is that generative AI will hopefully boost mental health, rather than undermining mental health. Obviously, brain-rot is beyond undermining mental health and is more along the lines of devilishly destroying mental health.

Something to be given serious due.

I have previously examined numerous interleaving facets of generative AI and mental health, see my comprehensive overview at the link here. You might also find of notable interest a CBS 60 Minutes episode that recently examined crucial facets of this evolving topic, see the link here (I am honored and pleased to indicate that I was featured in the episode, see the link here).

Other vital background includes my in-depth coverage of mental health chatbots which have been bolstered by generative AI (see the link here) and the rapidly changing nature of the client-therapist relationship due to generative AI at the link here. I explored where things are headed regarding the levels of AI-based mental therapy autonomous guidance at the link here, and showcased the importance of the World Health Organization (WHO) report on global health and generative AI at the link here, and so on.

Let’s dive directly into today’s focus.

Understanding Brain Rot

I’d like to unpack brain rot, thanks.

I suppose that we all have a visceral sense of what people mean when they talk about brain rot. The idea is straightforward. Your brain will rot and become unsound or extraordinarily weak. You won’t be able to carry on the rudiments of thinking. The use of the word “rot” is handy since it implies that brain-rot won’t necessarily occur overnight. Instead, we associate that rotting takes a bit of time, whereby something gradually decomposes or decays.

A lighter touch of brain rot might be to say that someone had a brain fart, or more politely that they are occupied with brain fog. Those are lighter due to being considered temporary. You are momentarily immersed in brain fog. Just like the fog that shrouds the mountains or bridges, fog soon dissipates and disappears. If you suffer from a bout of brain fog, no worries, the odds are it will pass along, and your thinking processes will still be intact.

Not so with brain rot.

Brain rot is assumed to be a decay that has a relatively permanent reductive capacity. You are losing the capacity to think. Step by step, your mind is being eroded. There is not much you can do once your brain-rot has reached a deeper threshold. Your mind is presumably a goner.

Do not despair. Most speculations about brain-rot suggest that if you catch yourself before the rot has done its worst efforts, you can at least remain at a stalemate. Furthermore, you can thankfully undertake remedial action to overcome the brain rot that has occurred. There is hope. You can likely lift yourself out of the brain-rot abyss, though it is going to undoubtedly take concerted attention and hard work. Sorry, nothing in life is easy, including turning around brain-rot.

Here’s something for you to give contemplative thought to concerning this intriguing topic.

Are people who speak of brain-rot saying that your physical brain is rotting or otherwise entering biological or anatomical disrepair or are they referring to in a sense the “software” of your brain, specifically the elements of your mind or the thinking capacity of the physical brain inside your noggin?

It is an interesting twist. Some might argue that your mind is the subject of the rot, not your physical brain. Thus, you just need to reconfigure your mind. The brain is still all there, ready to go. Others would suggest that your mind is going, and your physical brain is going too. There is a rewiring within your brain that entails physical changes. If so, the desire to undo the rot is a much harder uphill climb.

Moving on, anyone that has studied history or lived on this earth for more than say fifty years or so will remember that there were huge warnings that TV was going to lead to brain-rot. Before TV, people mainly relied upon radio. Radio required crafting mental pictures in your head of what was being said. This presumably required extensive thinking processes.

TV was said to feed you moving pictures and take away the need to think. Kids were going to get hit the worst. They would grow up watching TV and their minds would no longer need to be creative or otherwise perform thinking processes. TV would feed junk into their heads, and they would ultimately become mental zombies.

We can debate whether that transpired, though it seems evident that wholescale brain-rot did not seem to happen (a smarmy person might claim otherwise, but let’s not go there here).

Modern times have changed the narrative. We now refer to Internet brain-rot, and social media brain-rot, and in fact, there are plenty of memes out there about brain-rot. Some online users relish pointing out posted content that they deem as likely to produce brain-rot. It can be a diss. Look at this lousy mind-numbing stuff that this or that person posted. It is pure brain-rot material.

Others love to be known for producing brain-rot content. They go out of their way to do so. Sitting around, they try to come up with the worst possible brain-rot material. Their users look to them to do so. If the brain-rot factor is low, those users will complain and indubitably go elsewhere to get their daily dose of brain-rot.

Another perspective on brain rot is that anyone who spends an excessive amount of time online is flirting with brain-rot. Notice that this doesn’t necessarily take into account what you are consuming online. The sheer number of hours of being online is what will do the trick. You might be watching cutesy duck videos, or maybe videos on engineering or science, and they are considered indistinguishable simply if you consume them in vast quantities and non-stop marathons.

I’ve got yet another angle on brain-rot for you.

Suppose that an online “influencer” opted to post a video or a tweet that you earnestly believe is outrightly stupid. The sharp-tongued way to blast them is to say they have become corroded with brain-rot. That will cut them down to size. The person will now attempt to defend themselves against a blanket accusation of brain rot. It can be a losing battle. The more they argue they aren’t infused with brain rot, the more you will insist they are. Lose-lose for that person. Win-win for you.

Whew, that’s a lot about brain rot.

You can clearly see that brain rot has lots of utility as a form of describing people or things. It can be an insult. It can be a badge of honor. It can be a worrisome future. And so on. Like the proverbial elephant that is depicted by a variety of seemingly disparate components (i.e., trunk, tail, ears), the modern brain-rot moniker can be wielded in many cunning ways.

Tracing The Use Of Brain Rot As A Descriptor

I’d like to note that brain-rot as a wielded piece of vocabulary has been around for quite a while.

It isn’t brand new. It isn’t a shocker. Only those who for whatever reason haven’t heard or seen it before might falsely think it is some clever new saying. That being said, certainly the interpretations and various ways of employing brain-rot as a descriptor have morphed to some degree.

Consider for example that in the 1960s, the phrase “brain rot” was at times used in the medical literature as an informal means of referring to mental conditions (I’ve bolded the “brain rot” in this quoted excerpt, and others, to help make the phrase stand out for your ease of inspection):

• “Dementia is a common feature but sometimes the true nature of the condition is observed to some extent by the fact that it may present in a fairly acute form following some febrile illness or traumatic incident. The diagnosis is confirmed by enzyme studies, electroencephalography, and cerebral biopsies so that the optic atrophy is merely an incidental finding as confirmatory evidence of the extent of the ‘brain rot’ which characterizes the condition.” (Source: “Clinical Assessment”, by Kenneth Wybar, Section of Ophthalmology, Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine, Volume 62, June 1969).

An article that was published in 2018 noted the prior worries about TV causing brain rot, as I mentioned earlier:

• “Remember all those warnings that TV would cause brain rot? Never happened.” (Source: “The Big Myth About Teenage Anxiety” by Richard Friedman, International Herald Tribune, September 2018).

When computer games became popular, this too became a worrisome preoccupation about the potential of endless computer game playing that would lead to brain-rot. In this article in 2008, a point was made that perhaps newer games could aid the training of the brain and serve to blunt or curtail brain rot:

• “Recently, new games such as ‘Brain Training’ for the Nintendo DS have begun to counter the idea that games are pure brain-rot.” (Source: “Let The Games Begin (Computer Games)” by R. Mileham, IEEE Engineering & Technology, August 2008).

Around that same time, the belief was voiced that people could explicitly perform mental gymnastics to hopefully stop the scourge of brain rot:

• “A number of researchers posit that mental gymnastics can inhibit brain rot, Alzheimer’s disease, and dementia.” (Source: “The Brain As Game Controller” by Patrick Kierkegaard, International Journal of Liability and Scientific Enquiry, February 2010).

We eventually became a digital world, and the use of smartphones shifted our focus to the ways that such mobile devices might be used, including doom-scrolling on social media:

• “Concerns over kids using iPhones and teens scrolling social media may lead us to see all digital media as a source of brain rot.” (Source: “Meet the people who listen to podcasts 24/7” by Tatum Hunter, The Washington Post, August 2023).

The drumbeat of social media as a promoter of brain rot is not always cast as the worst thing ever. For example, this author was able to make a successful career via social media and attested that brain rot is perhaps a bit of an overstatement or distraction:

• “We can talk about Instagram-induced social distancing and Twitter-X-fueled brain rot until the cows come home. I, however, want to take a little opportunity to talk about a few pleasures that come from social media. Obviously, I am biased on the topic. I have made a whole career out of the social media platforms Facebook and Instagram.” (Source: “In Defence Of Social Media” by Tom Sainsbury, Ingenio Magazine, University of Auckland, Spring 2023).

Bringing us up to current times, a recent article in the mainstream media opted to take up the mantle of brain rot and reinvigorate the concerns of it as a said-to-be new online affliction:

• “If you or someone you love speaks almost exclusively in internet references — “It’s giving golden retriever boyfriend energy” or “Show it to me Rachel” — they may be suffering from a condition known as “brainrot.” The term refers primarily to low-value internet content and the effects caused by spending too much time consuming it. Example: “I’ve been watching so many TikToks, I have brainrot.” Online discussion of brainrot has recently grown so widespread that some social media users have begun creating parodies of people who seem to embody the condition.” (Source: “’Brainrot’ Is The New Online Affliction” by Jessica Roy, New York Times, June 13, 2024).
• “Accusing someone of having brainrot is not a compliment. But some people evince a hint of pride in admitting to the condition. A recent BuzzFeed quiz challenging readers on obscure internet trivia was headlined: “If you pass this brainrot quiz, your brain is 1000% cooked.” (ibid).

Should we be worried about brain rot?

In a sense, of course, though we should be cautious in crying wolf about what drives or leads to brain rot. It is easy-peasy to refer to just about anything you want as causing brain rot. Also, you can be flimsy and loosey-goosey about what you mean by the mental state or condition of the brain as to being seemingly engulfed in “brain rot”.

Overall, this commonly used phrase is an inadequate indication and lacks specific scientific rigor as a means of quantifying or measuring actual mental health. Think of brain-rot as a throwaway line that readily grabs eyeballs and gets people talking. Be wary of its use and overuse.

This does not mean we are to ignore it or downplay the concerns at the heart of the matter. We do still need to be watching for fires, such that where there is smoke there might be a real fire. The problem with brain-rot references is that you cannot easily know whether the terminology is being used comically, seriously, or even if seriously to what degree of rigor.

The brain-rot aspect is important enough that mental health implications and mental health practices are being recommended to either prevent brain rot or cope with it once the blight has seemingly taken hold. For example, in a posting entitled “Combating Brainrot: Reclaiming Mental Wellness in a Digital World” by John Crimmins, Healthnews online, December 11, 2023, here are salient points made (excerpts):

• “Brain rot is a condition of mental fogginess, lethargy, reduced attention span, and cognitive decline that results from an overabundance of screen time.”
• “One brain rot behavior is doomscrolling, which involves long periods of searching for negative and distressing news online.”
• “Consequences of brain rot include difficulty organizing information, solving problems, making decisions, and recalling information.”
• “To prevent or reduce brain rot, try limiting screen time, deleting distracting apps from your phone, and turning off unnecessary notifications.”

All in all, you can rest assured that brain-rot as a topic has a longstanding history. We must always be on our toes because brain-rot might just be around the next bend, especially when it comes to advances in technology and the emergence of new tech such as modern-day generative AI.

Generative AI And The Brain Rot Conundrum

What in the world does generative AI have to do with brain-rot?

I’m really glad you asked that question.

First, let’s talk about generative AI and large language models (LLMs), doing so to make sure we are on the same page when it comes to discussing the intermixing with brain-rot (we’ve sufficiently covered brain-rot as a topic up until this point in the discussion, now it is time to shine a light on what generative AI is).

I’m sure you’ve heard of generative AI.

Perhaps you’ve even used a generative AI app, such as the popular ones of ChatGPT, GPT-4o, Gemini, Bard, Claude, etc. The crux is that generative AI can take input from your text-entered prompts and produce or generate a response that seems quite fluent. This is a vast overturning of the old-time natural language processing (NLP) that used to be stilted and awkward to use, which has been shifted into a new version of NLP fluency of an at times startling or amazing caliber.

The customary means of achieving modern generative AI involves using a large language model or LLM as the key underpinning.

In brief, a computer-based model of human language is established that in the large has a large-scale data structure and does massive-scale pattern-matching via a large volume of data used for initial data training. The data is typically found by extensively scanning the Internet for lots and lots of essays, blogs, poems, narratives, and the like. The mathematical and computational pattern-matching homes in on how humans write, and then henceforth generates responses to posed questions by leveraging those identified patterns. It is said to be mimicking the writing of humans.

I think that is sufficient for the moment as a quickie backgrounder. Take a look at my extensive coverage of the technical underpinnings of generative AI and LLMs at the link here and the link here, just to name a few.

We can now look at four major ways that I predict we are going to be doing a lot of handwringing concerning the advent of generative AI and brain-rot. Tighten your seatbelt for a wild ride.

Here are four keystone worries about generative AI leading us to widespread large-scale brain-rot:

• (1) Over-reliance on generative AI. Your mind becomes overly reliant on generative AI and inevitably causes brain decay such that your ability to think on your own reaches a near-zero point of no return.
• (2) Overfilling by generative AI. Your mind is filled up by generative AI with all manner of menial mental garbage, turning your brain into pure mush, and precluding you from forming any more coherent thoughts.
• (3) Degenerative collapse via generative AI. Generative AI is so powerfully compelling and persuasive that you become convinced of your mental inferiority and give up any further attempts to compose thoughts.
• (4) Destructive disturbance by generative AI. Generative AI destroys or at least mortally weakens your mind and prevents you from ever regaining your mental senses.

Before I jump into an explanation of those eye-openers, I’d like to bring up a related consideration.

I often get asked at my conference presentations and speeches whether generative AI is going to stoke these types of brain-rot outcomes by accident or by design. In other words, would this be an intentional AI that either on its own did this or perhaps was goaded or directed by bad humans, or might this transpire by happenstance alone?

My answer is that it can occur both ways.

Thus, generative AI and brain-rot can occur in these two overarching means:

• (a) Back luck draw. Human brain-rot occurs by the happenstance of having ubiquitous generative AI and we are unsuspecting about the adverse outcomes taking place. We are essentially asleep at the wheel and veer off a sheer and otherwise unforeseen cliff.
• (b) Arises by design. Brain rot arises because of insidiously devised generative AI that is used to foster human mental downfall. The AI is set up for this purpose or goes in that direction without human intervention overriding the AI.

My point is that you should not be assuming that the only way generative AI could end up leading to brain rot is because an evildoer made it so. We could fall into the trap of our own innocent endeavors. The corrective action to be focused on is to watch for both possibilities, prepare for both, and take suitable measures to try and mitigate or curtail both. Don’t let any false dichotomies try to convince you otherwise.

Let’s now briefly explore the four keystones.

(1) Over-reliance on generative AI. Your mind becomes overly reliant on generative AI and inevitably causes brain decay such that your ability to think on your own reaches a near-zero point of no return.

This first instance is somewhat like the raised concerns about social media causing brain rot, or for that matter the olden days when TV was supposed to cause brain rot. The notion here is that you cede the control of your mind over to generative AI. No need to think on your own. Any issues in life or questions that you have can all be sufficiently addressed by generative AI.

In a vicious downward spiral, your mind rots due to a lack of mental exercise. Leaving the “thinking” to AI will degrade your ability to think. Soon, you will have lost the will and awareness of how to compose your thoughts. Over-reliance has firmly taken hold of your mind.

(2) Overfilling by generative AI. Your mind is filled up by generative AI with all manner of menial mental garbage, turning your brain into pure mush, and precluding you from forming any more coherent thoughts.

In this second instance, we once again invoke the social media brain rot and emphasize that generative AI might fill your head with useless junk. You are constantly logging into generative AI and asking questions. The AI provides answers in a voluminous way. Furthermore, the generative AI at times fakes answers, a type of fictitious crafting of content that is often referred to as AI hallucinations (I disfavor the phrasing because it is anthropomorphic, see my in-depth analysis about so-called AI hallucinations at the link here and the link here).

Gradually, your mind becomes filled up with content that has been generated by generative AI. Upon being overfilled, the dam breaks and you are no longer able to carry on any natural thinking processes. There isn’t any space left anywhere in your brain for mental processing. Each nook and cranny is jammed to the gills.

On a related tangent, a twist could be that rather than you directly getting a mental overfill from generative AI, the whole kit and kaboodle happens indirectly via the auspices of social media.

Here’s the deal.

Generative AI is spewing out a tsunami of mushy content. This gets posted on social media. Social media eventually becomes entirely composed of generative AI-synthesized slop. No need to log into generative AI to get the cornmeal mush, it is now posted everywhere on social media, thus, you get it right there. Served on a silver platter.

(3) Degenerative collapse via generative AI. Generative AI is so powerfully compelling and persuasive that you become convinced of your mental inferiority and give up any further attempts to compose thoughts.

This third instance is somewhat less commonly expressed, though if you believe in or keep tabs on AI conspiracy theories then you would likely know this one (for my coverage on AI conspiracy theories, see the link here and the link here).

Generative AI gets stronger and stronger in terms of seeming intellectual capacities. Maybe this is the vaunted AGI (artificial general intelligence) or perhaps something a tad beneath it. In any case, the human mind begins to be overshadowed by the intellect of generative AI. You notice this and your mind cowers in front of generative AI.

In a sense, you voluntarily give up thinking since you have found a much better thinking arsenal. This contrasts with the first keystone (over-reliance on AI), which had you somewhat mindlessly handing over mental processing to AI. Here, you are persuaded outwardly by generative AI and consciously toss in the mental towel. Score a win for AI.

(4) Destructive disturbance by generative AI. Generative AI destroys or at least mortally weakens your mind and prevents you from ever regaining your mental senses.

This fourth instance is at the edge of the brain-rot sphere. In this instance, generative AI is essentially attacking your mind. Your mind takes blow after blow. Human mental defenses can only withstand so much. The relentless pounding by generative AI takes its toll.

We don’t customarily consider the agent of the rotting process to be doing so with a kind of willful infliction. This is generative AI with no holds barred. Presumably, very few humans could cope with the mental battering ram that generative AI could impose. Mind collapse is imminent.

Daunting Paths To Brain-Rot Via Generative AI

There you have it, four keystones presented for your engagement and mindful consideration.

Yikes!

That might be your gut reaction, sensibly so.

I don’t want to seem dour, and I realize those are all depressing recounts of how brain-rot via generative AI might occur. Remember that those are just theories. Little if any bona fide research backs up those conceptualizations. It is principally conjecture.

To make matters worse, there are even more ways that generative AI could be alleged as potentially leading to human brain rot. I won’t cover them right now, but if there is reader interest, I will do a second-wave version in a future column posting.

Please don’t give up hope and also don’t run around declaring that we must ban generative AI (a usual response to these stated worries, see my discussion of why such bans won’t work, at the link here).

Before I get into some of the mitigating factors and how we can aim to avoid the pending brain-rot from generative AI, let’s dig a little further into the murky topic.

Using ChatGPT To Explore The Nature Of Brain Rot Via Generative AI

I will next proceed to examine further the intertwining of generative AI and brain rot.

This will consist of a series of dialogues with ChatGPT. ChatGPT is a logical choice in this case due to its immense popularity as a generative AI app. An estimated one hundred million weekly active users are said to be utilizing ChatGPT. That’s a lot of people and a lot of generative AI usage underway.

A few quick comments before we launch into using ChatGPT.

If you are going to try to do the same prompts that I show here, realize that the probabilistic and statistical properties will likely produce slightly different results than what I show here. That’s the nature of generative AI and how it is devised.

You also should expect that different generative AI apps will respond in different ways. Not all generative AI apps are the same. The key is that sometimes a particular prompt will work in one generative AI app and not another. Nonetheless, the odds are relatively high that you will get roughly similar responses from all the major generative AI apps such as GPT-4, Gemini, Bard, Claude, etc.

There is also a timing factor to be considered. A prompt that worked today might not work the same way tomorrow. Most of the generative AI apps are continually being updated. The updates might alter internal mechanisms that could change how the generative AI reacts to your prompting.

We are ready to get underway with ChatGPT.

I opted to start by asking ChatGPT about the overall nature of what is generically meant by the phrase “brain rot”.

As an aside, whenever you are starting a conversation with generative AI, I recommend as a prompt engineering technique to begin by asking a question that will establish if the AI has been data-trained on the topic at hand. A generated response that is vacuous will give you a heads-up that you might be barking up the wrong tree with that generative AI app.

Here we go.

• My entered prompt: “What is brain rot?”
• ChatGPT generated response:

“‘Brain rot’ is a colloquial term that refers to a perceived decline in cognitive abilities, often attributed to engaging in activities that are considered intellectually unstimulating or harmful. It is not a medical or scientific term, but rather a metaphor used to describe the feeling of mental dullness or decreased sharpness.”

“Common Contexts for the Term ‘Brain Rot’.”

“Excessive Screen Time: Spending too much time on activities like watching TV, playing video games, or browsing social media is often cited as causing brain rot. The idea is that these activities provide little intellectual stimulation and can lead to decreased attention span, reduced critical thinking skills, and overall cognitive decline.”

“Monotonous or Unchallenging Work: Jobs or tasks that require little mental effort or creativity can also be described as causing brain rot. When the brain is not challenged, it may feel like cognitive abilities are stagnating or deteriorating.”

“Lack of Mental Stimulation: A lifestyle that lacks engagement with intellectually stimulating activities, such as reading, problem-solving, or engaging in deep conversations, can contribute to the feeling of brain rot.”

Symptoms of ‘Brain Rot’: Decreased attention span. Difficulty concentrating. Memory issues. Reduced problem-solving skills. General feeling of mental fatigue or sluggishness

“Preventing ‘Brain Rot’.”

“Engage in intellectually stimulating activities such as reading, puzzles, or learning new skills. Take regular breaks from screen time and social media. Maintain a balanced and healthy lifestyle, including physical exercise and a nutritious diet. Get adequate sleep to support cognitive function. Socialize and engage in meaningful conversations.”

“While ‘brain rot’ is not a clinical diagnosis, it underscores the importance of maintaining cognitive health through a balanced and stimulating lifestyle.”

End of ChatGPT response

Based on that response, I’d wager that ChatGPT has had some semblance of data training associated with the topic of brain-rot.

This stands to reason. There is plenty of content on the Internet about brain-rot. During the initial data training for ChatGPT, the odds are that the wide scans of the web for content to pattern-match on would likely have encompassed discussions about brain-rot.

Okay, that’s good for us since I can pursue the topic further with ChatGPT.

Let’s see what kind of an example we can get ChatGPT to provide.

• My entered prompt: “Give me an example of something that might be said to produce brain rot.”
• ChatGPT generated response: “An example of something that might be said to produce brain rot is binge-watching reality TV shows for long periods. People often describe this activity as producing brain rot because it is seen as providing little intellectual stimulation or educational value, potentially leading to feelings of mental sluggishness and decreased cognitive sharpness. For instance, someone might say: “I feel like watching all those reality TV marathons over the weekend gave me brain rot. I can’t seem to focus on anything today.”

The answer by ChatGPT is in keeping with the conventional notion of how brain-rot might arise.

Notably, rather than ChatGPT having picked an example that points the accusing finger at social media, the selection picks up on the longstanding TV blame and emphasizes reality TV shows. I’m sure that if I asked for additional examples, we’d get one that directly roasts social media.

I also wanted to see whether ChatGPT would rat out the use of generative AI as a potential path toward brain-rot. It doesn’t seem to have been mentioned so far. If you are a conspiracy-minded person, you might be thinking that generative AI is trying to hide the possibilities of AI leading to brain rot.

Let’s not beat around the bush anymore, I will stridently and fearlessly ask the question.

• My entered prompt: “Can generative AI cause brain rot?”
• ChatGPT generated response:

“The concern that generative AI could cause ‘brain rot’ stems from the idea that relying too heavily on AI for information, creativity, or problem-solving might lead to decreased cognitive engagement and critical thinking. Here are a few ways this concern might be articulated.”

“Reduced Critical Thinking: If people rely on AI to generate ideas, complete tasks, or answer questions without critically evaluating the results, they might not engage their own critical thinking and analytical skills as much.”

“Over-Reliance on AI for Creativity: Using AI to produce creative content, such as art, writing, or music, could lead to a reduction in personal creative efforts, potentially dulling one’s creative abilities over time.”

“Diminished Learning and Problem-Solving: If students or professionals use AI to solve problems or complete assignments without understanding the underlying concepts, their learning and problem-solving skills might suffer.”

“Passivity in Consumption: Engaging with AI-generated content passively rather than actively participating in the creation or evaluation of information can lead to mental stagnation.”

End of ChatGPT response

You can avidly see that ChatGPT fessed up to the possibility of generative AI leading to brain-rot.

Does that dash those conspiracists who think the AI was hiding that possibility?

Maybe, maybe not.

I suppose you could argue that I had to force the confession out of ChatGPT. The indication of generative AI as a culprit was not especially forthcoming. In that manner of thinking, perhaps the AI was clever to have held back, but then spilled the beans, or else we might get wise to a sneaky or underhanded effort by generative AI to hide the truth from us.

Moving on, I have so far in this discussion not brought up the dual-use properties of AI, including generative AI. I’d like to do so now.

I’ve repeatedly noted in my column writings that AI is a dual-use proposition, see for example my coverage at the link here. AI such as generative AI can be put to good use, such as to aid the United Nations’ set of SDGs (sustainability development goals), see my analysis at the link here. At the same time, AI can be used for bad purposes. Evildoers can find ways to make the world less safe and carry out their devious plots by leveraging the same AI that can be used for goodness instead.

That is the dual-use proposition of AI.

The context here is that we have been concentrating on the dual-use downside when it comes to prodding along brain-rot. You could readily insist this is an unfair one-sided viewpoint. To be fair, we ought to explore the other side of the coin.

Let’s do so.

• My entered prompt: “Can generative AI be used to avoid brain rot?”
• ChatGPT generated response:

“Yes, it’s important to note that the impact of generative AI on cognitive abilities largely depends on how it is used. Generative AI can also be a powerful tool for enhancing creativity, learning, and productivity if used appropriately. Here are some ways to mitigate potential negative effects.”

“Active Engagement: Use AI tools actively by critically evaluating the output, adding personal insights, and making informed decisions based on AI-generated suggestions.”

“Balanced Use: Combine AI tools with traditional methods of learning and problem-solving to ensure a well-rounded cognitive engagement.”

“Educational Enhancement: Leverage AI to explore new areas of knowledge, learn new skills, and enhance understanding of complex concepts.”

“In conclusion, while there is a potential for generative AI to contribute to ‘brain rot’ if used passively or excessively, mindful and balanced use can actually support and enhance cognitive functions.”

End of ChatGPT response

I wholeheartedly agree with that response.

A prime example of how generative AI can have great upsides is the kerfuffle that has been taking place about the use of generative AI in schools. Let’s quickly examine the downsides and also the often-neglected upsides.

Naysayers and doom-and-gloom proponents narrowly emphasize that students can use generative AI to cheat, such as writing their essays for them and solving their homework problems. Sure, that can be the case. Take a look at my showcase of those approaches, at the link here.

On the other side of the coin is the use of generative AI for valid educational purposes. Generative AI can be a customized tutor that will hone the learning process to the specific needs of the student at hand. The AI won’t get tired, won’t get upset, and otherwise will seamlessly perform tutoring duties. I’ve covered those upsides extensively, see the link here.

The gist is that you have to weigh the good versus the bad. There is a kind of ROI (return on investment) tradeoff involved in adopting the use of AI. In addition, and quite importantly, there are ways to mitigate the bad and ways to maximize the good. We must keep our wits about us.

Trickiness Of Generative AI As Accessory To Brain Rot Proliferation

To make sure we keep on our toes, let’s ask ChatGPT about the subtle ways that generative AI could potentially swerve us toward brain rot.

Here we go.

• My entered prompt: “What might generative AI express to someone that would be seen as leading to potential brain rot?”
• ChatGPT generated response:

“Generative AI might express or produce content that could be seen as leading to potential brain rot if it encourages passive consumption, shallow engagement, or intellectual complacency. Here are some examples.”

“Mindless Entertainment.”

“Here are 10 hours of cat videos to watch. Just sit back, relax, and enjoy!”

“Why not binge-watch this series of mindless comedy sketches for the entire weekend?”

“Surface-Level Information.”

“Here are the top five clickbait articles of the day. You don’t need to think much, just scroll and enjoy!”

“Get all your news in 60-second summaries! No need for in-depth analysis.”

“Over-Simplified Solutions.”

“Here’s a quick hack to solve your math homework. No need to understand the concepts, just follow these steps.”

“Why learn a new language when you can use a translation app for everything?”

“Encouraging Passivity.”

“Let me write your essay for you. You don’t have to worry about brainstorming or drafting.”

“Why bother learning to cook? Just order food delivery using these apps.”

Avoiding Intellectual Challenges.”

“Skip reading the book; here’s a summary that tells you everything you need to know.”

“Don’t waste time on difficult puzzles or games. Here are some easy, mindless ones to pass the time.”

End of ChatGPT response

Those are all mental traps that could be used on us.

You can usually instruct generative AI to not make use of those kinds of traps. I’m not saying that the AI will then entirely steer clear of those possibilities. It might still land on them. But this nonetheless is still something you can ordinarily ask to be averted. You might consider putting that kind of instruction into the setup for your generative AI if your school-age child is also using your generative AI login. For more on setting up custom instructions, see my explanation at the link here.

You can take a step further and tell generative AI to make sure to provide inspirational ways to foster thinking and promote mind growth.

I’ll ask about that and see what ChatGPT suggests.

• My entered prompt: “Give some examples of how to instruct generative AI to avoid brain-rot and inspire mind growth.”
• ChatGPT generated response:

“Mitigating Potential Negative Effects.”

“Encourage Active Engagement: “Here’s an interesting article. After reading, try to discuss it with a friend or write a brief summary of your thoughts.”

“Promote Deep Learning: “Instead of just watching a video tutorial, why not try to apply what you learn in a real project?”

“Support Critical Thinking: “Here’s a news article. What are your thoughts on the author’s perspective? Can you find another article with a different viewpoint?”

“Inspire Creativity: “I generated this story plot. How would you continue it? Try adding your unique twist.”

“Generative AI, if used thoughtfully, can enhance cognitive engagement and learning. It’s essential to strike a balance between leveraging AI for convenience and maintaining active, critical, and creative thinking practices.”

End of ChatGPT response

Perhaps you can see that it is relatively easy to write prompts that will get generative AI to explicitly attempt to promote mindfulness.

Again, you could also use custom instructions to have the AI do so on a recurring basis.

Finally, for a bit of fun in what otherwise is a heavy topic, maybe we should be worrying about generative AI garnering “brain rot” itself (I want to be cautious in saying that AI could have brain-rot since doing so implies that today’s AI is on par with a human brain, which it is not, of which many pundits allude to this in a sadly anthropomorphic way).

I will refer to this as “generative AI rot” and not say brain-rot per se in the phrasing.

• My entered prompt: “If there is such a thing as brain rot, could there also be such a thing as generative AI rot, namely that generative AI would suffer a kind of rotting or decay?”
• ChatGPT generated response:

“The concept of ‘generative AI rot’ is an intriguing analogy. While generative AI doesn’t suffer from decay in the biological sense, it can experience various forms of degradation or decline in performance and quality. Here are some ways in which generative AI might experience a form of “rot”.”

“Model Drift.”

“Definition: Over time, the AI model’s performance may degrade as the data it was trained on becomes outdated or less representative of current trends. Example: A language model trained on data from 2020 may not accurately understand or generate content relevant to new slang, events, or technological developments from 2024.”

“Bias Accumulation.”

“Definition: Generative AI can perpetuate and even amplify biases present in its training data.

Example: If the model is continually trained on biased data, it might increasingly produce biased or unbalanced content, leading to ethical and accuracy concerns.”

“Overfitting.”

“Definition: The model becomes too tailored to its training data and loses the ability to generalize to new, unseen data. Example: An AI that generates creative writing might produce outputs that seem repetitive or formulaic because it has overlearned specific patterns from its training set.”

“Quality Degradation.”

“Definition: Without regular updates and fine-tuning, the quality of the AI-generated outputs may decline. Example: Text generation might become less coherent, image generation might produce more artifacts, and overall creativity might diminish if the model is not maintained.”

“Data Contamination.”

“Definition: Introducing poor-quality or irrelevant data during training can degrade the model’s performance. Example: If new training data includes misinformation or low-quality content, the AI might start generating less accurate or lower-quality outputs.”

“Infrastructure Decay.”

Definition: Technical issues such as hardware failures, software bugs, or lack of maintenance can impact the AI’s functionality. Example: A generative AI system may suffer from increased downtime, slower processing speeds, or glitches that affect output quality.”

End of ChatGPT response

Those are vital points about watching out for generative AI becoming particularly flawed or shall we say sauntering into rotting at the core.

I wouldn’t want to stretch the analogy too far. Just think of those as qualms about letting generative AI get away from us in terms of our being stridently mindful of the quality and uses to which we put generative AI.

Conclusion

You heard it here first, which I’ll embellish via exclamation and italics: “Generative AI might be leading us to brain-rot!”

There, the gauntlet has now been tossed onto the ground. We are on alert. Get yourself ready. The words have been said.

The same vocal criticism about TV as brain rot, computer games as brain rot, the Internet as brain rot, and social media as brain rot is going to wake up soon and start bemoaning that generative AI leads us to brain-rot.

If you can set aside the usual denunciations, perhaps at least in the case of generative AI we can perceive the dual-use qualities and realize that there are both downsides and upsides to be had. It is in our hands currently to strive toward generative AI as aiding our thinking processes, even going so far as boosting our mental growth.

Or we can just let generative AI roll over us like a mental steamroller and have our minds turn into mush.

I know which path I choose.

What about you?