The core idea behind this blog post is to explore a profound and often overlooked risk of our increasing reliance on AI: cognitive outsourcing and the subsequent atrophy of human skill.
The risk is not overlooked at all. Many people are complaining about exactly this issue: students using AI instead of learning, professors using AI instead of teaching and grading, “vibe coders” writing crap code, and so on.
That’s a great point, and I agree that the general concern about over-reliance on AI is being widespread now. Also when I say overlooked, I mean it in the way that there are no constraints being put in place for the use of AI wrt limits for a particular task. For example if staring a screen is hurting your eyes, the doctor would recommend you to set an upper cap on your mobile phone usage (or wear blue-ray glasses). Unlike the above example, I don’t see much efforts in the field to limit AI usage (this comes from my original view that everyone company wants their employers to be super productive at all times, but if this comes at the cost of a potential human creativity cap in the future, it should be taken seriously and governed).
What I’m trying to highlight, though, isn’t the simple act of ‘using AI instead of learning’ which is a very valid and common complaint but the more insidious, long-term effect on our fundamental cognitive skills.
The risk is not overlooked at all. Many people are complaining about exactly this issue: students using AI instead of learning, professors using AI instead of teaching and grading, “vibe coders” writing crap code, and so on.
That’s a great point, and I agree that the general concern about over-reliance on AI is being widespread now. Also when I say overlooked, I mean it in the way that there are no constraints being put in place for the use of AI wrt limits for a particular task. For example if staring a screen is hurting your eyes, the doctor would recommend you to set an upper cap on your mobile phone usage (or wear blue-ray glasses). Unlike the above example, I don’t see much efforts in the field to limit AI usage (this comes from my original view that everyone company wants their employers to be super productive at all times, but if this comes at the cost of a potential human creativity cap in the future, it should be taken seriously and governed).
What I’m trying to highlight, though, isn’t the simple act of ‘using AI instead of learning’ which is a very valid and common complaint but the more insidious, long-term effect on our fundamental cognitive skills.