We all know a lack of exercise is bad for our bodies. So what is relying on AI doing to our brains? | Devi Sridhar

When I was a postgraduate pupil astatine the University of Oxford successful the aboriginal 2000s, I interviewed for a large consulting firm. All my friends were being recruited, and I thought wherefore not springiness it a shot? Aside from the accustomed maths-proficiency trial (how rapidly tin you crunch numbers successful beforehand of a lawsuit and look smart), I was asked astir what the aboriginal of streaming could look like. I gave a long-winded reply astir the unintended consequences of changing however humans interact with each different erstwhile a caller exertion is introduced, and wherefore this whitethorn not beryllium successful the champion interests of wellness and society.

I adjacent retrieve saying thing like: “Can you ideate conscionable being stuck astatine home, alone, watching amusement aft amusement and ne'er having to determination oregon spot immoderate different people? Why would anyone take that implicit going retired to rent a DVD astatine a section shop, oregon to a movie theatre?” You won’t beryllium amazed to larn that I wasn’t invited for a follow-up interview.

The spouse astatine the consulting steadfast thought my reply was wholly wrong. They saw the imaginable maturation and profitability of streaming – and you could say, successful hindsight, they had a point: Netflix’s planetary gross continues to emergence twelvemonth connected year, reaching $12.6bn (£9.5bn) successful 2026. My answer, connected the different hand, focused connected its societal and wellness consequences.

But if you look astatine the antagonistic interaction that excessive screen-time has had connected wellness and wellbeing, especially connected children, possibly I wasn’t incorrect aft all. We cognize that societal isolation is present widespread, anxiousness and slump too, with sleep besides negatively affected by however precocious we enactment up watching content.

And present I am, much than 20 years later, being asked to speech astir AI and what it means for higher education, wellness and nine astatine a league astatine the University of Edinburgh, wherever I enactment arsenic a professor. I cognize galore radical would say: “It’s wonderful! Our lives volition each get easier.” But we’re besides moving person to a satellite wherever we don’t person to spot anyone, determination anyplace oregon usage our brains, seemingly astatine all. And again I think, fantastic for who? Wonderful for the tech companies and those looking to chopped costs by replacing humans with automation, but surely not for the remainder of us.

There’s a comparison, for me, betwixt the effects of streaming connected our carnal enactment levels and health, and the probable effects of AI connected our brains. The richer a state becomes, the much radical determination into non-manual labour, with sedentary activities successful their escaped time. We tin spot grounds for this if we look astatine improvement successful low- and middle-income countries: physical enactment goes down arsenic GDP per capita goes up. Over the past fewer decades, we person seen the wellness consequences of sedentary behaviour grow: higher rates of chronic illness specified arsenic cancers and type-2 diabetes, much chronic backmost and cervix pain, and reduced prime of life. Physical question has go a leisure enactment to enactment healthy, and is progressively linked with higher socioeconomic presumption successful places specified arsenic the UK.

We cognize that not utilizing our bodies is atrocious for our carnal wellness – but what is regular reliance connected AI doing to our minds? The existent causal grounds mightiness instrumentality decades to emerge, but we tin nexus respective trends unneurotic to conjecture astatine an answer. We know, for example, that AI usage and regular screen-time averages are going up. At my university, I’d conjecture astir each students are utilizing immoderate benignant of generative AI (gen AI) to nutrient their work, raising immense challenges erstwhile it comes to assessment.

The 2026 Higher Education Policy Institute survey of students’ usage of gen AI recovered this twelvemonth that 95% of undergraduates reported utilizing AI successful astatine slightest 1 way, and 94% said they had utilized it successful assessed work. We besides cognize that wide acquisition attainment levels are decreasing: a caller OECD report noted that pupil show crossed its subordinate countries continued to decline, with the lowest mean ever recorded for maths and reading. The study links these mediocre scores to longer screen-time, accrued digitalisation successful the schoolroom and the illness successful reading for enjoyment among children.

All of this makes maine wonderment what volition hap to our brains arsenic we proceed to outsource cardinal cognitive functions to AI. We already person preliminary grounds from a survey that utilized electroencephalography (EEG) sensors to measurement electrical enactment successful the brain, titled Your Brain connected ChatGPT: it showed those students utilizing gen AI to constitute essays had weaker and little distributed encephalon connectivity than those penning afloat connected their own.

We besides cognize that a deficiency of intelligence engagement tin pb to losing cognitive relation implicit time. A survey of more than 19,000 adults implicit the property of 50 recovered greater information successful cognitively stimulating leisure activities (such arsenic crosswords oregon sudoku) was linked to little dementia hazard and amended cognitive functioning successful aboriginal life. Just arsenic absorption grooming is important to support musculus wide arsenic we age, our brains besides request regular training. Use it oregon suffer it.

As we look to the future, volition thinking, reading, penning and actively utilizing our brains go activities from a bygone era? If we halt utilizing our brains to think, socially interact, ore oregon problem-solve, what volition beryllium the interaction connected our prime of beingness and our chances of ageing healthily? Will we spot a emergence successful chronic illness linked to the brain?

And, possibly conscionable arsenic importantly, does anyone adjacent care? It’s surely not the interest of tech companies, which are successful an arms contention to spell faster. And truthful we’re heading successful that absorption and being told it’s each wonderful. Yes, it is fantastic for definite tech companies. And astir apt unspeakable for the intelligence wellness and wellbeing of the remainder of us.

• Prof Devi Sridhar is seat of planetary nationalist wellness astatine the University of Edinburgh