The slack muscle
A lot of us had the same moment this year: you hit a problem, and before your own mind even engaged, your hand was already typing it into the model. Ask first, think second. The answer comes back fine. And something you used to do yourself goes quiet.
We’re not against the tool. We’re against the claim that offloading is free. It’s measurable — the GPS users who can no longer navigate their own city, the students whose writing now arrives pre-smoothed by a model and who can’t tell anymore which thoughts were theirs. A skill unexercised atrophies. A skill never built never exists.
Augmentation for whom
The augmentationists point to the kid who shipped a game. We’ll grant the case — and note that it’s the best one, a curious child who wanted to build. The median case is someone who wanted the answer, got it, and did a little less of their own thinking, day after day, until doing it yourself became the hard, optional path.
The printing press cuts our way too. Yes, we adapted to writing. We also lost the oral memory of whole cultures and called it progress, because we couldn’t see what we’d traded. We’d like to see it this time, while we still can choose.
Where we concede ground: Our warnings echo every panic that turned out fine. The cried-wolf problem is ours to carry.
What would change our mind: Heavy AI users, a decade on, scoring as well or better on unaided reasoning and recall than light users.
Read the full synthesis: What’s the right relationship between AI and human intelligence?