Another “AI rots brains” study…

Humans love a shortcut.

But, just like navigating without GPS, or splitting the bill without someone getting their phone out, it’s inescapable that the less we do something, the less we *can* do something.

Even if GenAI is helpful for certain tasks, we still need (dare I say, want…!) to be able to problem solve, create, communicate, sense check, think critically and laterally when the opportunity presents itself.

Accidentally taking a wrong turn because your phone has died is somewhat less of an issue than losing the ability to critique what you read.

And this is particularly important for our young people.

Whatever your thoughts on the importance of mental maths,

(despite the ruin of “you won’t always have a calculator in your pocket!” it is undoubtedly a good thing to have some idea of if your phone’s bill split result looks right, or if you’ve mistyped a 0 somewhere after one too many glasses of wine…)

we really need to make sure the AI equivalent of the ‘non-calculator paper’ holds out…

I don’t want LLMs to write my emails. I want to think about how best to communicate my thoughts to the person I’m writing to, and then do it. And be able to do it again in future.