Before Texas Tech students open their books and begin taking notes, some are opening an app and typing in questions to an artificial intelligence search bar.
All throughout campus, AI platforms have become a part of students’ daily routines. As these tools grow more accessible, some students are questioning what constant convenience might be doing to the thing college is meant to sharpen: the mind.
Shan Xu, an associate professor for public relations and strategic communication management, said students’ reliance on AI reflects cognitive offloading — the act of allowing AI to take on everyday mind-based responsibilities.
“Cognitive offloading is described as a phenomenon where people want to offload cognitive tasks and have AI help them do it rather than doing it themselves,” Xu said.
For Avery Kenney, a first-year sports management major from Dallas, AI is far from a harmless innovation. Instead, it is a threat to the way humans were made to function.
“AI ruins people’s brains since they don’t have to use their own thoughts,” Kenney said. “People use it for text messages and school and just don’t think.”
A 2025 study by the MIT Media Lab found students who used AI showed lower brain activity and weaker academic performance.
Xu backs this claim up by connecting it with neuroactivity and the effects AI has when used incorrectly, ultimately making the mind lazy.
“When using (Chat)GPT, research found relatively weak neuroconnectivity and the brain underengaged,” she said. “As human beings with our muscles and our brain, we have the inertia to keep them active at all times. If not, they will get lazy and reluctant to work.”
Jetta Smith, a first-year metalsmithing and jewelry design major from Grapevine, said AI is simply the evolution of materials people already used to avoid thinking through questions.
“I feel like before ChatGPT, we just looked things up on Google,” she said. “People still look stuff up on Google, and then sometimes the AI answer will come up first. So, I feel like you’re still getting the information no matter how you look at it.”
The use of AI goes deeper than convenience by changing the way students approach cognitive effort and creating an idle culture, Kenney said.
“People are getting lazy. They’ll take photos from their computer or iPad, and then just say (to AI), ‘Give me the answer,’” she said. “Then sometimes it’ll give you wrong answers, so you’re not learning anything.”
Kenney said her concern when it comes to AI increased when she noticed people closest to her began relying on it to respond to simple text messages.
“When someone texts you and you don’t know what to say, AI will just make a message for you,” she said. “There’s no real thought or emotion in anything anymore.”
Xu said some AI tools act as “psycho friends,” reinforcing users’ beliefs instead of challenging them.
“AI psycho friends is a phenomenon found in a lot of AI tools where it will not give you helpful suggestions that you really need, it just reinforces that what you’re thinking is amazing,” she said.
Smith said she understands the concern when it comes to AI usage but hopes users become more educated so they can use the tool in a helpful way rather than a hurtful one.
“I don’t know how you would get rid of the negative aspects of AI,” Smith said. “I feel like that would be really hard, but maybe to help with the situation there could just be a way to warn or educate people about the dangers of how it could make us forget how to think.”
Even with awareness, reliance may continue to grow. Xu said dependence is beginning to shape how students learn and influence how they think, especially in younger generations.
“So far, existing evidence shows that younger generations are more likely to adopt AI as a companion and talk about feelings. They can consider it as a therapist sometimes,” Xu said. “But no existing AI tool can claim that they have the certificate of being as helpful as a therapist.”
As AI begins to take on the role of a companion, Xu warns it could replace real human interaction.
“AI is pretty effective at reducing the feeling of loneliness. However, feeling loneliness has motivational value. We feel lonely so we go and talk to real human beings,” she said. “If every social need is met by AI, then we don’t need to interact with human beings.”
As artificial intelligence becomes more common, students remain divided between efficiency and effort. For Kenney, the answer is simple and rooted in a belief far older than the latest technological advancement.
“God made the brain,” she said. “He wants you to use your mind and not some robot. He didn’t make the robot. A person using their mind made the robot.”
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