"Doom Researching" Study Warns AI Queries Can Replace Real Thinking
Repeatedly asking ChatGPT for answers may inflate your perceived knowledge without actual learning.
A new conceptual paper from Santosh Premi Adhikari introduces the term "doom researching" to describe a growing pattern in human-AI interaction: users repeatedly query generative AI systems for explanations, summaries, and reassurance, but fail to convert those interactions into durable understanding, decisions, or finished work. Building on research on doomscrolling, cognitive offloading, transactive memory, and the illusion of knowing, the framework shows how fluent AI responses reduce cognitive effort and inflate perceived knowledge, creating a loop that encourages further querying rather than synthesis.
The paper goes beyond simple criticism of AI overuse. It presents a formal model of the doom researching loop, a candidate risk index for empirical measurement, and testable propositions for future studies. Adhikari extends the analysis through the lens of the extended mind thesis, distinguishing assistive, substitutive, and disruptive forms of cognitive offloading. Crucially, doom researching is linked to broader concerns about AI-driven homogenization and knowledge collapse—where reliance on AI for answers erodes the diversity of thought and genuine expertise. The work aims to provide a vocabulary for understanding when AI-assisted inquiry becomes a substitute for thinking, synthesis, and action.
- Doom researching is defined as repetitive AI-assisted information seeking without proportional synthesis or output, distinct from doomscrolling and cyberchondria.
- The paper introduces a formal loop model and a risk index to measure the phenomenon empirically.
- It warns that substitutive cognitive offloading via AI may lead to knowledge collapse and loss of intellectual diversity.
Why It Matters
This framework helps professionals audit their AI habits to ensure tools enhance, not replace, genuine understanding.