Is AI Making Us Dumb?
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A Stanford Grad's Brain Started Buffering at Lunch.
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. Not because it was surprising, but because it finally put words to something I'd been noticing everywhere but couldn't quite name.
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 Stanford grad? He's just the canary in the cognitive coal mine.
This isn't just another story about AI changing how we work. It's not about productivity or automation or even the future of jobs. This is about something far more fundamental: the way our brains are adapting – or perhaps surrendering – to artificial intelligence.
In the next few minutes, I'm going to take you inside this phenomenon. We'll look at:
The hidden price we're paying for AI-assisted thinking
How this could reshape an entire generation's mental capabilities
What the numbers reveal about our growing dependence
What we can do to protect our cognitive independence
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 scariest part? Most of us don't even realize we're part of the experiment. We're too busy asking AI to help us write emails, solve problems, and complete our thoughts to notice how it's changing the way we think when AI isn't there.
And that's where our story really begins...
Because what I discovered when I started paying attention to my own AI usage patterns wasn't just surprising – it was terrifying. But to understand why, we need to look at some numbers that none of us are tracking.
The Hidden Cost of Digital Dependence
After seeing Greg's tweet, I decided to do something that would change how I saw my relationship with AI forever. I started tracking every time I reached for artificial assistance.
The results shocked me.
In just one week:
Monday: 37 AI completions for basic emails
Tuesday: 42 requests for better word choices
Wednesday: 28 times asking AI to "make this 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.
And here's the truly frightening part: I consider myself a conscious AI user.
The Mathematics of Mental Atrophy
Let's put this in perspective.
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. A conservative estimate puts it at 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 the numbers only tell part of the story. It's what's happening inside your brain during these moments that really matters.
When you struggle to find the right word, your brain:
Activates your vocabulary network
Considers context and connotations
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 Pattern Emerges
What starts as convenience quickly becomes dependency. I watched this pattern unfold in real time when a senior copywriter – someone with 15 years of experience – spent 20 minutes asking ChatGPT to improve a two-sentence email to his team.
Think about that. A professional writer, with over a decade of expertise, no longer trusted their own ability to write two sentences.
This isn't just about writing anymore. It's about what happens to our minds when we stop using them. And the effects are starting to show up everywhere I look.
What I'm about to share next isn't just troubling – it's a wake-up call about the four devastating ways this cognitive outsourcing is reshaping our minds, our work, and our relationships.
And once you see these patterns, you can't unsee them...
The Four Devastating Effects
What I'm about to share might make you uncomfortable. Not because it's shocking, but because you'll likely recognize these patterns in yourself and others around you.
After months of observation and countless conversations with professionals across industries, I've identified four devastating effects of our growing AI dependence. Each one builds on the others, creating a downward spiral that's increasingly difficult to escape.
1. The Confidence Spiral
It starts subtly. You doubt whether your first draft is good enough, so you ask AI to improve it. The AI version sounds smoother, more professional. So next time, you reach for AI a little sooner.
Before long, you're not just using AI to polish your work – you're using it to start your work. Then to think about your work. Then to decide if work needs to be done at all.
Each time you defer to AI, your confidence in your own abilities erodes a little more. The spiral tightens.
2. The Creativity Tax
Here's where things get interesting. You might think AI is enhancing your creativity by offering new ideas and perspectives. But something else is happening beneath the surface.
Your brain's ideation muscles are weakening. Original thinking becomes harder. You find yourself pattern-matching instead of creating. Your unique voice – the one you spent years developing – starts to sound more and more like everyone else's AI-enhanced communication.
It's not just that we're becoming less creative. We're becoming less capable of recognizing our own creativity when it happens.
3. The Learning Block
This might be the most insidious effect of all. When 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.
Think about learning to play a musical instrument. The frustration of hitting wrong notes is part of developing muscle memory. Now imagine if an AI could play the perfect note every time you struggled. Would you ever truly learn to play?
The foundation for future learning crumbles beneath your feet. And you might not notice until you need to stand on it.
4. The Social Impact
This is where personal cognitive decline becomes a collective problem. Real-time conversation becomes more challenging. Natural language processing skills decline. Human-to-human communication feels increasingly difficult.
I'm seeing it in meetings. People struggle to find words without their AI assistants. They pause mid-sentence, reaching for phones that aren't there. Authentic connection suffers in ways we're only beginning to understand.
The Collective Cost
What happens when an entire generation grows up with these patterns? When students never learn to write without AI assistance? When professionals never develop confidence in their unassisted abilities?
We're about to find out. Unless...
There is a way to maintain our cognitive independence while still benefiting from AI's capabilities. But it requires something most of us haven't been doing: conscious intervention in our own cognitive patterns.
And that's exactly what I'm going to show you next...
Finding Our Way Back
Remember that Stanford graduate I mentioned at the start? Don’t be like him. You need to make a decision that will change your relationship with AI forever. You need to starting treating your mind like an athlete treats their body – with intentional exercise, rest periods, and a training regimen.
I sat down this afternoon and began developing a system. It's not about abandoning AI – it's about maintaining our cognitive independence while still benefiting from AI's capabilities.
The Independence Framework
Think of it like a gym routine for your brain. You wouldn't let a robot do all your physical exercises, so why let AI do all your mental ones?
Here's how it works:
1. The Solo Zone (Morning)
Your brain is freshest in the morning. Use it. Start your day with 30 minutes of completely unassisted work:
Write your first drafts
Solve your first problems
Plan your day
Let your mind work at full strength
2. The Enhancement Zone (Midday)
Now AI becomes your spotter, not your replacement:
Use it to refine your completed work
Validate your solutions
Consider alternative perspectives
Enhance what you've already created
3. The Acceleration Zone (Afternoon)
This is when AI becomes your productivity partner:
Handle routine tasks
Format documents
Research support
Speed up, don't substitute
Making It Work
Here's the crucial part: Track everything. Just like I did in my week-long experiment, keep a log of:
When you reach for AI
Why you reach for AI
What you could have done independently
How it felt to push through without assistance
Your Move
Knowledge without action is just entertainment. So here's what I want you to do right now:
Look at your last email draft Did you write it yourself, or did AI help?
Check your recent messages How many times did you ask AI for help with responses?
Review your current projects Where are you dependent on AI for thinking?
Then make this commitment: For the next seven days, start your morning in the Solo Zone. No AI assistance for the first 30 minutes of work. Document the struggle – it's evidence of your brain rebuilding its strength.
Remember, 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.
Because that Stanford graduate? He could be any of us in a few years. Or he could be a wake-up call that helps us maintain our cognitive independence before it's too late.
The choice is yours. What will you do with your next thought?
Until next week,
Scott
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