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Psychologists and linguists say the growing habit of turning to AI-generated summaries instead of full texts is changing how much information people actually retain.
As artificial intelligence tools such as ChatGPT and Gemini become part of daily life, experts say the shift away from deep reading and toward quick algorithmic summaries is leaving fewer facts embedded in memory.
Researchers say artificial intelligence is not solely responsible for the decline in reading culture, but note that it increasingly steers users toward summarized content, reducing the time spent on books.
That shift, they say, can carry negative consequences for learning, memory, attention and deep comprehension.
Susan Baron, a linguist and author at American University in Washington, evaluated the effect of AI summaries on book reading.
Baron said reading has changed significantly over the past decade, and stressed that physical book reading still produces better focus and learning outcomes.
On AI's effect on reading habits, Baron said, "AI actually contributes to how much people read. I use the word 'contributes' specifically because it contributes to people reading less."
Baron noted a serious decline in the number of readers in recent years, saying, "But this did not start with AI. It had already started before. We cannot blame AI alone."
Baron pointed to a broader digitization of reading habits among individuals.
She said, "We are missing the opportunity to benefit from what reading original works gives us, and that provides many benefits: it is a source of relaxation, a way of reducing stress, a way of escaping to other worlds and identifying with people who live, do not live, or never lived elsewhere. If we lose our motivation to read because we rely too heavily on AI, we lose all of that."
Baron also warned that social media, particularly short-video platforms such as TikTok, has significantly reduced attention spans, saying, "We do not see AI's effect here directly, but the videos AI recommends to us, or videos made with AI, significantly shorten our attention span."
Asked whether AI is bringing an end to reading, Baron said, "I do not think AI is ending reading, but it is shortening it, narrowing it, or reducing the value we place on it."
Daniel Willingham, of the Department of Psychology at the University of Virginia, said he had previously advised people not to rely solely on the options Google presents.
He said, "Now we do not even look at websites anymore. In two-thirds of our searches, we accept Gemini's AI-generated answer to our question. That is even more concerning, because we do not even know exactly what the source is."
Willingham noted that AI increasingly directs people toward summaries rather than original sources, and said this carries two cognitive consequences.
He said, "The first result is that fewer facts remain in our minds, and the reason we can predict this is that memory is a byproduct of thinking about something. So spending less time reading is a threat to comprehension. The less time you spend reading, the fewer memories you retain."
Willingham described the second consequence as a threat to accuracy, saying, "If I let AI read many different sources, review the leading evidence and decide what is more credible, which is what I am doing right now, I end up seeing less myself. That is, of course, a serious threat to learning."
Willingham stressed that reading a book itself is not the same as reading an AI-generated summary of it, saying, "Thinking about a novel, spending a few weeks with its characters, reflecting on them, understanding the author's perspective, is of course not the same as reading a 15-minute AI summary."
Noting that people read less than they did 25 years ago, Willingham said, "The reason people spend less time reading is not AI alone, but also digital media content such as video."
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