Australian Experts Warn of Student 'Cognitive Atrophy' Without Urgent AI School Standards

Canberra - Australian students face the risk of permanent "cognitive atrophy" and a widening learning divide unless the federal government intervenes to regulate the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in classrooms, according to a major report released on Monday.

The study, co-authored by cognitive psychologist Professor Jason Lodge and Professor Leslie Loble, asserts that while AI has the potential to deepen educational outcomes, its current unstructured integration threatens the foundational "thinking infrastructure" of developing minds.

The report, published by the Australian Network for Quality Digital Education, calls for the immediate adoption of national standards for AI tools and enhanced training for the teaching workforce.

Professor Loble, who chairs the Network and formerly led the New South Wales (NSW) Department of Education as Deputy Secretary, warned that the tendency for students to outsource complex thinking to generative models could have long-term developmental consequences.

"The cognitive offloading from human to AI is especially risky for school students, who are building the foundational knowledge and skills that enable both schooling and lifelong capacity for learning and understanding," Professor Loble said.

She noted that the challenge cannot be ignored in the same manner as the early rise of social media.

"The issue isn’t whether AI exists in classrooms, but whether it is being used to strengthen learning and help students become more effective thinkers," she said.

The report highlights a growing "learning divide" where students with high domain knowledge use AI to accelerate their progress, while disadvantaged students may use it to bypass the learning process entirely, leading to detrimental offloading.

Professor Lodge said the school years are a critical window for memory storage and cognitive development.

He argued that replacing these processes with automated tools could create a gap in capability that would be nearly impossible to close in adulthood.

"While unstructured use of AI risks cognitive atrophy, humans still learn more effectively from and with other humans," Professor Lodge said, adding that "by supporting the teacher, we empower the human expert who is best placed to manage the complex, relational work of co-regulating learning and managing cognitive load."

The report identifies two primary leverage points for policy reform, the design of AI tools that promote cognitive engagement rather than simple answer generation, and providing teachers with evidence-based resources to guide student interaction with the technology.

The authors conclude that without a strong pedagogical response, AI's propensity for error and "hallucination" makes it a liability for students who have not yet developed the critical thinking skills required to evaluate complex content.

"The decisions we make now will determine whether AI deepens students’ knowledge and critical thinking, or instead hollows out the learning process and causes long-term harm to their cognitive development," Professor Loble said.