News

Relying on ChatGPT significantly affects critical thinking abilities, according to a study conducted by researchers from MIT Media Lab, Wellesley College, and Massachusetts College of Art and Design.

A team of researchers, led by MIT Media Lab research scientist Nataliya Kosmyna and including Wellesley’s Ye Tong Yuan '25, studied what happens when people use ChatGPT to write an essay.

Ye Tong Yuan '25 worked on a study with MIT researchers, bringing potential downsides of ChatGPT use to light. The research found the brains of people who used ChatGPT were less engaged than others.

Economics professor Phillip Levine writes: “A giant endowment-tax increase is coming. Whether it merely hampers or severely burdens affected institutions seems to be the only remaining question.”

Jasmine Guillory ’97 writes for the Times about her favorite romance novels that use the “fake dating” trope. Feigned love leads to real connections in these funny, joyful and deeply romantic books.

Historian Kellie Carter Jackson joins CBS Mornings to explain the origins of Juneteenth and how it fits into the broader story of Black resistance, as explored in her new book, “We Refuse.”

Narges Bojoghli ‘04, anthropology/middle east studies professor at John Hopkins: “The most ardent proponents of regime change in Iran may be accelerating the very nuclear program they claim to fear.”

Economist Phil Levine developed his price calculator to help families understand the cost of a degree without deciphering complex aid formulas. Colleges are queuing up to use it.

“If you’re not from a high-income family, there’s not a lot to look forward to in terms of college costs going forward, given these policies,” says economist Phil Levine, who studies college pricing.