“One does not learn computing by using a hand calculator, but one can forget arithmetic.”
― Alan J. Perlis

I’m seeing more and more articles with salacious headlines, like “AI is Making Us Dumb” or “How LLMs Rot Your Brain”. These headlines aren’t made up out of thin air. There’s some actual science somewhere in the mix. Several real scientific studies, conducted by real scientists, at reputable institutions, seem to suggest that using AI causes inevitable brain atrophy. This study from Carnegie Mellon University and Microsoft Research, this one from MIT, and this example from SBS Swiss Business School, among others, are feeding this narrative.

Now, it’s possible to critically examine these studies and point out some of the problems or how they may be misinterpreted. But instead, let’s just address the fundamental fear: offloading cognitive exercises to AI reduces our abilities in such exercises.

This fear isn’t without merit. Our brains form connections to help us solve problems and complete tasks efficiently and effectively. In order to build up those connections, we need to repeat a task many times over. This is why it was hard to ride a bike on your first attempt, but eventually it became second nature. It’s why goaltenders develop cat-like reflexes or baseball players can adjust between a 100 MPH fastball and a 72 MPH curveball (some of the time). It’s why you can drive home and suddenly realize you don’t even remember the trip (scary, I know).

On the other hand, you’ll lose or never develop brain connections for tasks you don’t practice on a regular basis. If you always let a robot solve the puzzle, you’ll never build the neural pathways required to become a puzzle solver. I know morse code operators who have been experts for 30+ years, but they need to brush up their skills and rebuild their copy speed if they go a couple of months without a CW contact. If you hand a contractor a traditional hammer when he’s used to working with a nail gun, it’ll take him some time to adjust. Our brains are amazing at optimizing for the skills we need right now and offloading to tools wherever possible.

Using AI will reduce our abilities in some areas, just like any other technological development of the past, but the question is: How much can AI free us to focus on higher impact tasks?

Easy to cook meals don’t make us fat. Eating junk food makes us fat.

Labor reducing machines don’t make us weak. Not exercising makes us weak.

Social media doesn’t make us lonely. Not spending time with family and friends makes us lonely.

AI doesn’t make us stupid. Not using our brains makes us stupid.

The choice is ours. We can choose to be lazy, or we can choose to think. We can choose to remain ignorant, or we can choose to study. We can choose to use AI as a crutch, or we can choose to use AI as a tool.