Supporting Cognition With Modern Technology: Distributed Cognition Today and in an AI-Enhanced Future

Abstract

In the present article, we explore prospects for using artificial intelligence (AI) to distribute cognition via cognitive offloading (i.e., to delegate thinking tasks to AI-technologies). Modern technologies for cognitive support are rapidly developing and increasingly popular. Today, many individuals heavily rely on their smartphones or other technical gadgets to support their daily life but also their learning and work. For instance, smartphones are used to track and analyze changes in the environment, and to store and continually update relevant information. Thus, individuals can offload (i.e., externalize) information to their smartphones and refresh their knowledge by accessing it. This implies that using modern technologies such as AI empowers users via offloading and enables them to function as always-updated knowledge professionals, so that they can deploy their insights strategically instead of relying on outdated and memorized facts. This AI-supported offloading of cognitive processes also saves individuals' internal cognitive resources by distributing the task demands into their environment. In this article, we provide (1) an overview of empirical findings on cognitive offloading and (2) an outlook on how individuals' offloading behavior might change in an AI-enhanced future. More specifically, we first discuss determinants of offloading such as the design of technical tools and links to metacognition. Furthermore, we discuss benefits and risks of cognitive offloading. While offloading improves immediate task performance, it might also be a threat for users' cognitive abilities. Following this, we provide a perspective on whether individuals will make heavier use of AI-technologies for offloading in the future and how this might affect their cognition. On one hand, individuals might heavily rely on easily accessible AI-technologies which in return might diminish their internal cognition/learning. On the other hand, individuals might aim at enhancing their cognition so that they can keep up with AI-technologies and will not be replaced by them. Finally, we present own data and findings from the literature on the assumption that individuals' personality is a predictor of trust in AI. Trust in modern AI-technologies might be a strong determinant for wider appropriation and dependence on these technologies to distribute cognition and should thus be considered in an AI-enhanced future.

Potential cognitive risks of generative transformer-based AI chatbots on higher order executive functions.

“…The use of AI chatbots could help overcome this human limitation (Dorneich et al, 2003) as they possess the ability to rapidly process vast amounts of information (Narayanan et al, 2021; OpenAI, 2023a), although intriguingly, when ChatGPT performs human cognitive tasks such as working memory, it exhibits similar limitations to those observed in humans (Gong et al, 2023). Nevertheless, AI chatbots may be regarded as “cognitive offloading” devices due to the cognitive and time-saving benefits for users when performing tasks (Grinschgl & Neubauer, 2022). Users who offload cognitive activities to AI Chatbots are freed from elaborate information processing (cognitive effort) as well as the ensuing cognitive fatigue (Holtzer et al, 2011).…”

“…This hypothesis suggests that AI may undergo a cognitive adjustment by implementing a “soft cognitive offloading” (Grinschgl & Neubauer, 2022). Individuals may use conversational AI technologies such as ChatGPT as an external resource to solve specific tasks or problems.…”