Is Artificial Intelligence Making Us Dumber? The Real Problem Is Something Else

There is a phrase that surfaces reliably every time a conversation about artificial intelligence begins: "We're all getting dumber." People will stop using their own brains, many say. It's an understandable concern, even a legitimate one. But before agreeing or disagreeing, it's worth pausing on a single statistic that changes the entire perspective.

According to OECD data — the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, one of the most authoritative statistical sources globally — approximately 35% of Italians are considered functionally illiterate. These are not people who cannot read or write. They are adults who, when faced with a moderately complex text, a bureaucratic document, a scientific article, or even a video with slightly technical language, cannot grasp its deeper meaning. They read the words but don't absorb the sense.

This figure, updated through the PIAAC programme (Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies), is not new. It has existed for decades, long before ChatGPT or any other generative artificial intelligence system entered our lives. The point, then, becomes clear: AI did not create this problem. It made it visible, brought it to the surface with a force it never had before.

The roots of functional illiteracy run deep into the education system. For years, Italian schools — like many European ones — have prioritised memorisation over understanding. Repeat, study, get the grade, move on. Critical thinking, the ability to connect distant concepts, to solve complex problems by reasoning through layers — this is developed late, often at university level, and by a limited percentage of people.

Added to this is a profound shift in how people consume information. We read longer content less and less. We are accustomed to fast, fragmented, continuous information. The short video format — those fifteen-second clips dominating social media platforms — has reshaped the way the brain processes stimuli. This isn't a moral judgement: it's neuroscience. A brain trained on ultra-brief content finds it progressively harder to sustain attention on anything more complex. And then there is exhaustion. Chronic stress, constant notifications, information overload, chronic sleep deprivation: when someone is perpetually bombarded by stimuli, the brain shifts into an energy-saving mode. It doesn't dig deeper. It reacts. And nothing more.

This scenario, already fragile on its own, now meets artificial intelligence. And here the risk becomes tangible. Someone who never learned how to verify information, to distinguish a reliable source from an unreliable one, to recognise a flawed argument, is now exposed to a volume of machine-generated — or machine-manipulated — content that has no historical parallel. Misinformation existed before AI, that's true. But the speed and scale at which it can now be produced and distributed are simply incomparable.

When a significant portion of the population struggles to interpret complex information, public discourse becomes fertile ground for manipulation. Simple slogans about enormous problems work. Technical-sounding language deployed to say nothing convinces people. It happens in politics, in the media, in business. It happens in science communication too, where sometimes the complexity of vocabulary is used as a substitute for actual authority.

So does artificial intelligence make us dumber? The answer depends entirely on how it is used. If it's used to stop thinking altogether — to outsource every thought to a machine without ever questioning the output — then yes, the risk is real. But if it's used to access knowledge that once felt out of reach, to have a difficult concept explained in accessible terms, to study more effectively and efficiently, then it becomes an extraordinary instrument of intellectual emancipation.

Technology has always amplified what already exists within people. AI is no exception. Those who use it well can understand the world with a new depth. And those who understand the world better are, quite simply, harder to manipulate.