Roger Waters warns AI and social media are eroding human thought and emotion

By isabelle // 2026-08-27

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Roger Waters told RT that AI and social media are eroding people's capacity for independent thought and emotion, driven by profit-seeking tech platforms.
He said social media algorithms manipulate users' political views and emotions while triggering dopamine-driven dependence.
A 2025 MIT study found ChatGPT users had the lowest brain engagement of any group tested, while a separate Swiss study of 666 UK participants linked frequent AI use to weaker critical thinking, especially among younger users.
Waters praised Australia's ban on AI-generated songs from its music charts, saying streaming has already devastated musicians' incomes.
He tied the same profit motive to global conflict, citing Israel's actions in Gaza, U.S. policy toward Venezuela, and the collapse of Ukraine peace efforts.

In an interview with RT published Wednesday, Pink Floyd co-founder Roger Waters issued a warning about artificial intelligence and social media, arguing these technologies are systematically eroding humanity's capacity for independent thought and genuine emotion. Researchers at MIT's Media Lab and SBS Swiss Business School have separately documented measurable declines in critical thinking tied to heavy AI use. Waters placed the blame squarely on powerful interests exploiting technology for profit, saying the same forces driving algorithmic manipulation are fueling global conflict.

Waters accuses platforms of emotional manipulation through addictive design

Waters argued that social media companies deliberately engineer their platforms to control users' political views and emotional states. He described the experience as releasing dopamine in users' brains, creating a feedback loop that deepens dependence. "It's controlling our political motivations and our feelings and our emotions, and also releasing dopamine," Waters said. The musician extended his critique to AI assistants, which he said undermine the cognitive faculties people rely on for independent reasoning. "It reduces the size of your brain and your capacity to think and your capacity to feel," Waters said. "In fact, it reduces everything human about anybody who goes in that direction."

Research links ChatGPT to lower brain engagement

Waters' warnings echo a 2025 MIT Media Lab study that monitored participants' brain activity through electroencephalography, or EEG, while they wrote SAT essays. Participants were split into three groups: those using OpenAI's ChatGPT, those using Google's search engine, and a "brain-only" group using no external tools. The ChatGPT group showed the lowest brain engagement of the three. Researchers found these participants leaned on the AI for structural suggestions early on, then increasingly submitted essays with little independent editing. The "brain-only" group showed the broadest neural activity, while the Google group fell in between. Lead author Nataliya Kosmyna told Time magazine she released the findings before peer review because she feared policymakers would rush AI into classrooms. "Developing brains are at the highest risk," she said. A separate 2025 study by Michael Gerlich of SBS Swiss Business School, published in the journal Societies, surveyed 666 people in the United Kingdom. Gerlich found frequent AI use was tied to weaker critical thinking, with the effect strongest among 17-to-25-year-olds and less pronounced among participants with more formal education.

Australia bans AI-generated songs from music charts

Waters praised Australia's decision to exclude fully AI-generated songs from its music charts, saying streaming platforms have already squeezed musicians with minuscule royalties while concentrating profits among Big Tech firms. "So that piracy has almost destroyed everything. But if they are then allowed to use AI to produce fodder for their very tame audience who pays so much a month to get any music that they want from anywhere… Unfortunately, we know that a large number of that audience won't be able to tell the difference between AI and Pink Floyd, or Neil Young, or Bob Dylan, or The Beatles or anything else." Waters argued the same profit motive fuels global conflict, describing the world as "controlled now by gangsterism." He cited Israel's actions in Gaza, U.S. policy toward Venezuela, and the failure to implement peace accords in Ukraine as examples of powerful interests prioritizing money over human life.

Educators face challenge of balancing AI tools with cognitive development

President Trump signed an executive order in April aiming to incorporate AI into American classrooms. White House staff secretary Will Scharf said the goal is training students to remain competitive as AI use expands. The Gerlich findings complicate that push, suggesting heavier AI reliance correlates with weaker independent thinking — a dynamic Kosmyna warned against directly. "I am afraid in 6-8 months, there will be some policymaker who decides, 'let's do GPT kindergarten,'" Kosmyna said. "I think that would be absolutely bad and detrimental." Sources for this article include: RT.com TheHill.com Phys.org PsychologyToday.com