Giorgio Iemmolo, is learning possible without writing

Neuroscience also confirms that writing is thinking: Neuronal connections are formed during writing, which are decisive for abstraction and long-term memory. Especially writing by hand activates regions of the brain that enable deep learning and conceptual thinking. Consequently, writing helps the brain to recognise major and far-reaching connections and to develop specialist knowledge that not only lives from facts, but is also based on understanding and can be applied in many different contexts.

Research into automation knows that cognitive systems atrophy when tasks calling for thinking are outsourced to machines. And there is a second stumbling block: The products of generative AI skilfully imitate knowledge, thereby disguising our dwindling skills. We sound eloquent without genuinely comprehending and without realising that we don't understand.

If students no longer write themselves, the diversity of perspectives and arguments will also suffer. This should give us pause for thought, because science thrives on the constant flow of new voices, questions and insights. These only arise, however, when people engage with knowledge in depth and in a critical manner.

Multilingualism is also a means to this end. People who read and think in several languages approach a topic from different perspectives - because languages organise knowledge differently. German, for example, abstracts in complicated sentences. French uses opposites. English makes a linear argument and takes readers by the hand.

This is not just a matter of style, it's about different ways of thinking. People who speak several languages think more flexibly. Generative AI does exactly the opposite. The results tend towards the mean and reflect English norms. Intellectual diversity gives way to linguistic plainness and simplicity.

Consequently, universities and schools should promote multilingualism, thereby promoting the ability to think abstractly and in terms of interactions and networks. AI-free writing must also be given a fixed place. This could be exams with pen and paper or writing tasks in class. Short interventions are also possible, in which students record their findings about the learning process - in writing or in the form of mutual feedback, the peer review. It is important here that lecturers are trained to evaluate the cognitive processes associated with writing rather than the final results.

Above all, however, I would advise universities to resist the urge for efficiency that AI tools promise. Because in-depth reflection and thinking takes time, and we should take that time despite all the promises of efficiency emanating from AI."