IT begins , as all great changes do , with a whisper . A quiet voice in your pocket , on your screen , in your ear - offering answers before you even finish asking the question . It does not sigh in frustration . It does not roll its eyes at your ignorance . It simply responds . And it is always there . Artificial intelligence - ChatGPT , Bard , Claude , the endless chorus of machine-driven knowledge - has woven itself into the fabric of our lives . We ask it for recipes , explanations , ideas , and solutions . We let it guide us through conversations , compose our emails , and even shape our opinions . It is remarkable . It is convenient . But at what cost ? VANISHING ART OF THINKING
Once upon a time , learning required struggle . You read books , piecing together fragments of knowledge like a puzzle . You argued , debated , reconsidered . There was beauty in that effort , in the slow , arduous climb toward understanding .
Now , the climb is gone . A single prompt delivers an answer so polished , so specific , that the struggle seems unnecessary . And so we begin to rely - not on ourselves , but on the machine .
Researchers call it cognitive offloading - the habit of outsourcing our thinking to external sources . First , it was books . Then , the internet . Now , AI . Each step forward has made information more accessible . But with accessibility comes a trade-off : the erosion of effort .
A 2021 study ( Nature Scientific Reports ) found that when people rely on AI for decision-making , they stop questioning . They simply accept . Another study ( Springer Open ) warns that repeated dependence on AI for problem-solving weakens independent reasoning .
It is an easy thing to surrender thoughts for the sake of ease . A shortcut here , a skipped step there . Until one day , we forget how to think for ourselves altogether .
QUIET DEATH OF SCEPTICISM
Imagine a world where people no longer question - where they trust blindly . Where they believe everything a machine tells them because , well , why wouldn ’ t they ?
It is not a distant future . It is already here .
A 2024 study in Scientific Reports found that people who rely
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Jonathan Fernandez is a journalist-turned- AWS Solutions Architect who perpetually marvels at philosophy , psychology , science , technology , history , politics and the endless dance of the cosmos . He is based in Portland , Oregon . |
on AI-generated recommendations tend to follow them - even when they are wrong . More troubling , when AI explanations accompany those recommendations , trust deepens . Even faulty logic becomes persuasive when dressed in the certainty of machine-generated confidence .
Scepticism - the ability to pause , reflect , doubt - is fading . And with it , something even more precious : our ability to think critically , to push back , to ask , “ Is this really true ?”
Once , truth was something we wrestled with . Now , it is something we are given . And we take it unquestioning .
CANDLE IN THE WIND
For centuries , human creativity has thrived on struggle . A writer stares at a blank page , wrestling with words until they finally find the right ones . A musician plays a melody a hundred times before it feels just right . A scientist obsesses over a theory for years , chasing an answer that refuses to be found .
Now , AI offers instant solutions . Story ideas ? Generated in seconds . A melody ? Composed by an algorithm . A scientific theory ? Predicted by a model . Yes , it is helpful . Yes , it is efficient . But is it the same ? A 2024 article in Frontiers in Psychology warns of « AIC-induced cognitive atrophy » - a slow decline in
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creativity when AI takes over the complex parts of thinking . Struggle , after all , is where originality is born . If we let AI think for us , what happens to the part of us that dreams , that imagines , that creates ?
Do we lose it ?
FUTURE ’ S STILL OURS TO SHAPE
None of this is to say AI is evil . It is a tool . And like any tool , its impact depends on how we use it .
We can let it think for us , or we can let it challenge us .
A study from MIT ’ s Media Lab found that when people questioned AI-generated responses , their critical thinking skills improved . When they engaged with the answers , rather than simply accepting them , they became sharper and more analytical .
So , perhaps the future is not a question of AI versus human intelligence . Maybe the real questions are :
Will we let AI replace our minds , or will we use it to strengthen them ?
Will we become passive receivers of knowledge , or will we remain active seekers of truth ?
The future is here . But it is still ours to shape .
And the choice - like all things worth choosing - belongs to us . - @ Digital
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