Is AI Making Us Dumber?
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The Day Our Brains Started Buffering
I saw a fascinating tweet from Greg Isenberg yesterday that stopped me in my tracks.
He described lunch with a 22-year-old Stanford graduate who kept pausing mid-sentence, searching for basic words. Not complex terms or industry jargon – just everyday vocabulary. The reason? The grad had become so dependent on ChatGPT completing his thoughts that his brain felt "slower" without it.
That observation hit me like a ton of bricks.
Think about this progression:
Three years ago, we were debating whether AI could write coherent sentences. Two years ago, we marveled at GPT-3's ability to complete our thoughts. Last year, we started using ChatGPT for emails and reports. Now? We're watching the first signs of what happens when human minds start outsourcing their thinking process.
And that's just the beginning.
In the next few minutes, I'm going to break down:
Why this might be the canary in the cognitive coal mine
The hidden price we're paying for AI-assisted thinking
How this could reshape an entire generation's mental capabilities
A framework for maintaining cognitive independence in an AI world
But first, you need to understand something crucial...
We're running the first large-scale experiment on human cognition in history, and nobody signed a consent form.
The Hidden Cost of Digital Dependence
Let me share something that happened in my kitchen last week.
I was cooking dinner, following a recipe I've made dozens of times, when I reached for my phone to ask ChatGPT about a substitution. Mid-reach, I froze. Why was I about to outsource a basic cooking decision I've made successfully many times before?
This is what I call the external brain reflex – the increasingly automatic impulse to delegate our thinking to AI.
Every time you let an AI complete your thoughts, you're not just saving time – you're potentially weakening a cognitive muscle. It's like having a personal trainer who does your pushups for you. Sure, you're getting things done, but are you maintaining your strength?
I started tracking my own AI usage last month. The numbers stunned me.
Monday: 37 AI completions for basic emails
Tuesday: 42 requests for better word choices
Wednesday: 28 times asking AI to make something sound better
Thursday: 51 queries about how to respond to messages
Friday: 44 instances of asking for help explaining concepts
That's 202 times in one week where I outsourced my thinking process. Two hundred and two moments where I could have strengthened my mental muscles but chose the cognitive equivalent of taking the elevator instead of the stairs.
The Mathematics of Mental Atrophy
This is where it gets fascinating.
Think about the number of word-finding challenges you face each day. Those small moments where you need to think of the right term, structure a sentence, or develop an idea. Let's say it's around 100 instances.
Before AI, you solved these yourself, strengthening neural pathways each time. With AI, you might outsource 70 of these moments to ChatGPT.
Do the math: Over a year, that's 25,550 fewer cognitive exercises.
But it's not just about the numbers. When you struggle to find the right word, your brain:
Activates your vocabulary network
Considers context and meaning
Evaluates emotional resonance
Processes cultural implications
Weighs alternative options
That's five levels of cognitive processing in one simple word-finding exercise. When you outsource this to AI, you're not just skipping one mental task – you're bypassing an entire neural workout.
The Science Behind Our Shifting Minds
Recent studies from Stanford's Cognitive Science Department have revealed something alarming: Our brains are literally rewiring themselves to depend on AI assistance.
Your cognitive system naturally seeks efficiency. When it finds a reliable shortcut, it takes it. This was brilliant programming for survival – why waste energy thinking when there's an easier way?
But AI is different from any tool we've used before:
Traditional tools extended our capabilities:
Stone tools enhanced our physical abilities
Written language broadened our memory
Calculators accelerated our mathematical processing
AI isn't just extending our thinking – it's replacing parts of the thought process itself.
The Expertise Paradox
Here's the cruel irony of AI assistance: The more you use it, the more you feel you need it.
I watch this pattern unfold everywhere:
Beginners tell themselves "I'll just ask AI when I'm stuck"
Intermediates convince themselves "AI helps me work faster"
Experts start admitting "I'm not sure I can think as clearly without it"
Last week, I watched a senior copywriter – someone with 15 years of experience – spend 20 minutes asking ChatGPT to improve a two-sentence email to his team. Two sentences. That's when it hit me. We're not just using AI as a tool anymore. It's become our cognitive safety net.
And the net is starting to feel more like a cage.
The Generational Impact
We're witnessing something unprecedented in human history.
The first generation that will never know a world without AI assistance is already here. Their neural pathways are forming differently from the start. Their cognitive foundations are being built on shifting sands.
Think about what this means:
Educational Development Traditional education built mental muscles through struggle and practice. Students learned to write by staring at blank pages. They solved problems by sitting with uncertainty.
Today looks radically different. Students reach for AI before they reach for their own thoughts. They seek completion before attempting creation.
The Four Devastating Effects
This growing cognitive dependence is creating four devastating ripple effects.
1. The Confidence Spiral You begin to doubt your unassisted abilities. This leads you to rely more heavily on AI. As you rely more on AI, your unassisted abilities actually do decline.
2. The Creativity Tax Your ideation muscles weaken from lack of use. Original thinking becomes harder. You find yourself pattern-matching instead of creating.
3. The Learning Block You skip the productive struggle of figuring things out. You miss the insights that come from working through problems. Your ability to learn new skills without assistance decreases.
4. The Social Impact Real-time conversation becomes more challenging. Your natural language processing skills decline. Human-to-human communication feels increasingly difficult.
Finding Our Way Back
I've developed something since seeing Greg's tweet – a system I call The Cognitive Independence Practice. It's designed to maintain our natural thinking abilities while still benefiting from AI assistance.
The Three Zones of Cognitive Independence:
1. The Solo Zone
Write your first drafts without AI
Tackle initial problem-solving attempts alone
Handle personal communications with your own voice
2. The Enhancement Zone
Use AI to refine completed work
Let it fact-check your research
Consider its alternative perspectives
3. The Acceleration Zone (As needed, but tracked)
Save AI partnership for routine (non-difficult) tasks
Leverage it for research assistance
Your Move
Knowledge without action is just entertainment.
Here's what I want you to do right now:
Look at your AI usage over the last week
Identify three tasks you used to do unassisted
Commit to doing those tasks manually for the next seven days
Document the struggle – it's evidence of your brain rebuilding its strength
Because here's the truth:
Your brain isn't buffering because it's broken. It's buffering because it's adapting to a new normal. And you get to decide what that normal looks like.
The real question isn't whether AI will be part of our future – it's whether we'll remain capable of clear, independent thought when we choose to think for ourselves.
Maybe it's time to make sure we can.
Until next week,
Scott