When ChatGPT launched halfway through my first year of university, I was immediately curious. At the time, the tool was far from perfect. At first, the tool wasn’t particularly reliable, answers were often awkwardly phrased or simply wrong. Still, I did see potential. Over time, I watched it evolve into a far more capable assistant, able to support me in nearly every stage of student work, from brainstorming to proofreading.
My own use has fluctuated a lot. At times, I leaned on GenAI quite heavily, letting it help me rephrase sentences, brainstorm, or quickly explain course concepts. Other times, I tried to step back, aware that if I used the tool too much, too soon, I might shortcut my own learning. It can sometimes feel tempting just to take the instant answer and move on, but I try to remind myself that working through the material on my own is usually where the real learning takes place.
This tension between productivity and overreliance feels central to my experience. GenAI can save me enormous amounts of time and provide personalised support whenever I need it. Yet, I also worry about what researchers call “cognitive debt”: the idea that constant reliance on these tools can erode critical thinking and independence (Kosmyna et al., 2025). I sometimes catch myself leaning on the tool too quickly, and that awareness has pushed me to be more deliberate about when, why, and how I use it. Granted, I have to admit that this is the case 100% of the time. However, I do really try to use GenAI more consciously. For routine tasks like polishing language or checking clarity, it’s an excellent resource. But for deeper understanding, I make a point of working things out myself first. In that sense, it’s less about the technology itself and more about the habits I build around it. Used carelessly, GenAI can negatively impact the learning process. Used wisely, it can free up time and energy for the parts of study that really matter.
Reference
Nataliya Kosmyna, Eugene Hauptmann, Ye Tong Yuan, Jessica Situ, Xian-Hao Liao, Ashly Vivian Beresnitzky, Iris Braunstein, and Pattie Maes. Your Brain on ChatGPT: Accumulation of Cognitive Debt when Using an AI Assistant for Essay Writing Task, June 2025. URL http://arxiv.org/abs/2506.08872. arXiv:2506.08872 [cs]
Your post struck me as both familiar and provocative – familiar because it mirrors my own experience, and provocative because it raises deeper questions about what it means to learn in the age of GenAI. It makes me wonder whether the real challenge is not simply avoiding “cognitive debt,” but rethinking what we count as intellectual effort. If tools like ChatGPT become extensions of our thought process, is reliance necessarily a weakness, or could it mark a shift toward a new form of distributed cognition?
I also find myself questioning the balance you describe: how do we distinguish between efficiency that liberates us and efficiency that hollows us out? Perhaps the real risk is not in using AI too much, but in using it unreflectively without a meta-awareness of what tasks should remain ours. In that sense, your reflection touches on something larger: the need to cultivate a new literacy, not just in reading and writing, but in discerning where our thinking ends and the machine’s begins.
That tension – between amplification and erosion feels less like a temporary dilemma and more like a defining feature of education in this era. Your post captures that paradox well, and it left me asking myself: are we truly protecting our independence, or simply redefining it?
I think a lot of people can relate to your honest experience with GenAI. I can relate to sometimes leaning on such tools too quickly, while having to remind myself that learning is about doing things on your own, using your own cognitive skills and it’s best not to rely too heavily on GenAI to make sure to preserve my own critical thinking skills. ChatGPT and other GenAI tools are definitely helpful, but as you said we do have to carefully reassess our habits and the purpose of using these tools. Overall, you capture both the promise and pitfalls of GenAI in student life very well.