Accepted for/Published in: Journal of Medical Internet Research
Date Submitted: Apr 21, 2025
Open Peer Review Period: Apr 22, 2025 - Jun 17, 2025
Date Accepted: Sep 23, 2025
(closed for review but you can still tweet)
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
Generative Artificial Intelligence in Medical Education: Enhancing Critical Thinking or Undermining Cognitive Autonomy?
ABSTRACT
Generative artificial intelligence (GenAI), based on transformer architectures with self-attention mechanisms, enables the generation of coherent, context-aware text by processing large-scale language datasets. Tools such as ChatGPT, Gemini, and LLaMA are increasingly integrated into medical education, assisting with literature review, clinical reasoning, information synthesis, and scientific writing. While their utility is clear, their impact on critical thinking—a core competency in medical training—remains uncertain. Users report enhanced productivity and linguistic refinement, yet also a risk of cognitive overreliance. Evidence from recent studies is mixed, highlighting both potential gains in learner engagement and risks of passivity or misinformation. Without structured integration and digital literacy training, GenAI may undermine students’ autonomy. However, when embedded within thoughtful pedagogical frameworks, these tools may serve as cognitive enhancers. Medical education must adapt to ensure future physicians engage critically and ethically with GenAI in complex clinical environments.
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