Using AI for just 10 minutes might make you lazy and dumb (opens in new tab)

I think it depends on how you use it. Recently I spent several days using Opus Extended for help on a simple mathematical model. I came up with the modeling ideas and some hypotheses, it did the math and worked through implications. Then I carefully read through everything it wrote, made sure it hadn't misinterpreted what I'd said (which it sometimes did), and checked all the math. Occasionally it used math I didn't understand, so I opened another chat to teach me that math.

In one way it was sycophantic, frequently saying how "sharp" my ideas were, but I just reminded myself to discount that. In other ways it pushed back. If the math didn't work out to the conclusions I expected, it pointed that out. It was like working with a reasonably smart, extremely productive, but less creative coworker.

I don't think it made me lazier, because it was intense and exhausting. But I learned a lot.

This is true and we should never go to the point where all we are doing is prompting. Thinking and analyzing is a core human function, and we should not dig ourselves to be dumb and stupid

AI is unlikely to make people like me, or most already established professionals, lazy. But it absolutely could affect younger people who are still learning and building fundamentals.

That raises a pretty serious question about regulating AI usage in education, and it’s surprising how little attention that discussion still gets.

This is where critical thinking needs to be a skill taught and learned. Too many people take information at face value. An AI that's 80/90% right is a great way to get duped - like the author at the end.

I agree. A month back, I was brainstorming ideas with AI a lot, and it took me a while to figure this out: I was essentially outsourcing my thinking. Honestly, I felt extremely dumb after the sessions and kept blaming myself for becoming dumb, but I stopped using AI, went back to my non-AI routine, and ideas started popping back up.

Soon companies will test newcomers to see if they can work without AI.

Definitely making us lazier. Not sure on dump; Depends on how you use it. Don't blindly use the output, try to learn from it instead..

This entire study hinges on overplaying the fact that these people because used to AI doing the work for them and didn't feel the need to try. That has nothing to do with actually being dumber.

Did advanced machining operators who used to perform all machine setup and operation in an analog way themselves become lazy and dumb when (computer) numerical control took over? Are modern machinists dumb? Or are they just smart in a different domain now that the positioning is actually taken care of?

It's like asking people to dig a hole and giving some of them a shovel and asking others to do it with their hands. Or asking them to go to a location a half mile away with a bike and then taking it away the nex time. They're not going to be real enthused after experiencing mechanical advantage.

Anyone that thinks that using AI for just 10 minutes has a real and lasting effect on intelligence might need to go back and do a little more training of theirs. Significantly more than 10 minutes of training, because 10 minutes will do nothing.

Exactly, just like using Google instead of going to the local library, using GPS instead of paper maps, or saving phone numbers as contacts in your phone instead of remembering them.

The more tech we invent and use, the dumber and lazier we get.