AI May Be Eroding Critical Thinking Skills

A recent TIME article on ChatGPT and learning gave me pause.
(and this includes other AI tools such as Gemini, Grok, Claude, Deepseek etc)

ChatGPT May Be Eroding Critical Thinking Skills

It discussed an MIT Media Lab study where participants wrote essays using ChatGPT, Google Search, or no tool. The findings are still preliminary, so we should not overstate them. But the concern is worth taking seriously.
The group that used ChatGPT showed the lowest brain engagement.
For me, this is not a reason to reject AI.
It is a reason to ask whether we are introducing AI in the right order.

This is where HAIL matters.
Human first.
Tool second.
Think First, AI Second.

The danger is not that Generation Alpha will use AI. They will. It will be part of their world.
The danger is that they may begin with AI before they have learned to sit with a question, form their own thoughts, make mistakes, explain their reasoning, or struggle through uncertainty.
And that struggle matters.It is where judgement is formed.

It is where curiosity grows.
It is where confidence becomes real.
It is where wisdom begins.

AI can give students polished answers. But polished answers do not always mean deep understanding.
Fluency is not wisdom.

Speed is not depth.

A completed task is not always a formed mind.

If AI becomes the get-go instead of the go-to, we risk raising a generation that can produce impressive work, but may not always know how they got there.

HAIL is not about holding students back from technology.It is about helping them grow into the kind of human beings who can use technology with thought, care, responsibility, and discernment.

Generation Alpha will not lack tools.
What they need is the wisdom to use them well.