ChatGPT Use Cut Student Cognitive Capacity, Study Finds

Using AI for every task may cost you 47% of your thinking capacity. Graziela Tonin on what to stop doing now. "The environment don't need us. We need the environment. The environment could survive without you." - Graziela Tonin What does it actually mean to unlearn something, and why does that question matter as much as learning new skills right now? With Graziela Tonin I talk about how universities, companies, and individuals are struggling to find their footing in a world where AI can write code, run tests, and sometimes outperform human decision-making. We get into the research showing that students who offload thinking to AI tools lose cognitive capacity rather than gain it, and what that means for how knowledge should be taught and shared. I keep coming back to her point that the rarest and most durable skills are not the technical ones: critical thinking, ethical behavior, knowing how to work in a team, and knowing how to learn at all. She also reminds me that the environment does not need us, we need it, and that is probably the sharpest piece of unlearning any of us could do right now. 00:00:00 Introduction 00:01:55 AI and Human Value Today 00:04:47 Reinventing Universities and Teaching 00:09:46 Learning to Use AI Properly 00:13:12 What Exactly to Unlearn 00:16:45 Business Leadership and AI Strategy 00:23:47 Skills That Stay Relevant 📘 Free e-book: The 7 success factors of software testing. 25 years of project experience in one 33-page workbook, now also in English 👉 https://tul.fm/ebook 🎯 Highlights: Students who used ChatGPT to complete tasks showed a 47% reduction in cognitive capacity and failed to retain the material afterward, according to research cited from NMAIT. 95% of companies investing in AI report no measurable return, because AI adoption is driven by hype rather than connected, governance-level strategy across all layers of the organization. Offloading tasks entirely to AI rather than treating it as a collaborative partner transfers responsibility away from the human and blocks genuine skill development. The disappearance of junior software engineering roles due to AI creates a pipeline problem: without junior engineers gaining experience, there is no path to producing senior engineers. Ethical behavior, critical thinking, and the ability to learn how to learn will outlast any specific tool, language, or framework as the durable competencies for professionals. 🔗 Links Blog Post for Episode: https://www.richard-seidl.com/en/podc... 🎙️ More from Richard Seidl Website: https://www.richard-seidl.com Linkedin:   / richardseidl   Podcast Software Testing: https://www.testing-unleashed.fm #softwaretesting #QA #aiandhumanskills