Is AI about to make us as smart as a zucchini? According to science, it's possible, but not inevitable. A recent study from Microsoft and Carnegie Mellon confirms a suspicion many had: AI can atrophy our brains! When we trust AI too much, we exert less cognitive effort at work.
The researchers surveyed 319 professionals and found that humans tend to take the path of least resistance, which leads to “cognitive offloading.” This means we outsource part of our mental work to tools, like using ChatGPT to write emails without reviewing them. As we increasingly rely on AI, our mental agility could diminish, potentially leading to a future where we resemble the humans from WALL-E, reliant on machines for everything.
However, it's important not to discard AI entirely. Instead of just executing tasks, we should adopt a supervisory role, maintaining our expertise while overseeing AI outputs. This “task stewardship” could be the future of intellectual work, encouraging critical thinking and creativity. To truly benefit from AI, we must collaborate with it rather than delegate tasks entirely.
