The Impact of Generative AI on Critical Thinking: Self-Reported (2025)

Re:The Impact of Generative AI on Critical Thinking: Self-Re... by kenferry on Saturday October 31, 2026 @03:16PM (#50319146)

Hoo, not been my experience.

AI has an obvious issue with incorporating how happy users are in its responses. It LOVES to "take your argument seriously", push back lightly, and then tell you you are really smart and make amazing points. If you start with an argument out of left field, you will shift the Overton window very easily.

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Re:The Impact of Generative AI on Critical Thinking: Self-Re... by jiggawatts on Saturday October 31, 2026 @04:54PM (#50320122)

Depends on the model. I’ve found Gemini to have the most silver tongue and Anthropic models to be the most harsh critics to the point of hilarity.

I’ve been burning spare weekly quota on fringe-adjacent physics. I often copy-paste the LaTeX format “paper” back and forth for “peer review of a friend’s work”.

Gemini: “Your friend’s insight hits the nail right on the head!”

Opus: “Tell your friend to stop wasting his time now, it’s more kind than to keep indulging him.”

Brutal.

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Re:The Impact of Generative AI on Critical Thinking: Self-Re... by jimnotgym on Saturday October 31, 2026 @06:22PM (#50320847)

Have you tried asking it not to? Claude can be a harsh critic. See the other commenter

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Re:The Impact of Generative AI on Critical Thinking: Self-Re... by kenferry on Saturday October 31, 2026 @07:19PM (#50321211)

See https://arxiv.org/abs/2607.13562. AI tends to make people much more confident in their answers. I worry about this for myself, and therefore try to limit my use of AI to either "getting things done" or idle queries. For developing real thought, I think of it as a very political underling who wants you to think it's valuable.

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