We are very conveniently leaving ourselves more and more at the mercy of technology. But we have to understand that AI operates on data, and data is provided by human beings. If we are dumb, our data will reflect that dumbness.
AI has done what it’s programmed to do, but are you doing what you are born to do? You are the user, the ego. And the ego always has a choice. If you don’t exercise choice, there is no elevation; then there is no difference between man and stone.
https://acharyaprashant.org/en/articles/is-ai-making-us-dumb-1_f89dd7f1d
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The author’s thesis on AI challenges the standard “technological progress” narrative by introducing the concept of “Historical Nepotism.” He argues that while our tools are evolving exponentially, our internal wisdom remains primitive, effectively putting “missiles in the hands of children.”
In the context of the future, this suggests a dangerous bifurcation: a tiny elite of creators versus a mass population suffering from “brain rot” due to outsourced cognition. If we continue to automate decision-making, we aren’t just losing skills; we are atrophying the very consciousness that defines our species.
In a future where AI handles all “thinking,” what becomes the primary driver of human value?
#Opinions?
Not making people dumb, just making it easier not to think. Many people trust it more than they probably should.
>Is AI Making Us Dumb?
I’m not sure, let me ask chatgpt. /s
This was a mostly reasonable take I think https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=iitq4Zrphdk
I believe it’s made work for me more efficient. I still need to go back and double check if substantively it’s correct, but I know that at least, everything at the surface level is fine (i.e. formatting).
In the same way that calculators made us technically dumber but potentially smarter.
Increasingly, LLMs are using data produced by LLMs in order to create their own data. A copy of a copy of a copy. And so on it goes.Â
Oh we were already dumb, but holding a smart-ass AI up next to us, we just look dumber.
Actually, AI is very useful for the society, it spreads the knowledge to everyone. It helps giving for example almost professional medical advises to everyone(ofc it needs to be double checked) fixing life long problems for the people that any local dumb doctors couldn’t figure out. Same with advices on legal problems, ordinary poor people could never afford themselves consultation of a professional lawyer or high end doctor, but now it is available instantly, personally tailored with just a click of a mouse.
AI is not making us dumb — it’s just exposing how comfortably dumb we are willing to be.
Blaming technology is the oldest escape. First it was books, then the internet, now AI. The pattern is the same — we don’t lose intelligence because of tools, we lose it because we stop using it.
Yes, AI runs on human data. But humans don’t just feed data into systems — systems quietly recondition humans. The more you depend on ready-made answers, the more allergic you become to thinking.
Intelligence is not in having answers. It’s in the capacity to sit with a question without rushing to outsource it.
AI didn’t reduce that capacity — our laziness did. AI just made it obvious.
Does it make people dumber, yes, is using it to make an article just as dumb? If not more, but yes.
I think peoples dependency on slop news articles are just as bad.
Socrates thought writing would make people forget things.
People thought calculators would make us bad at math.
People thought Google would make us stop remembering.
Now we think AI might make us stop thinking.
Maybe technology doesn’t make us dumb.
Maybe it changes what it means to be smart.
Let’s face it: not only AI, but even older and simpler technology could have that effect. The reason is, by opting to use the easy way we deprive ourselves of the struggle (and the mental, spiritual gain) that comes with not using technology.
If chatgbt said vaccines were real but people were paid to say it was fake, i wonder if the us wouldnt have a epidemic about to go off..
I think it’s how you use it.
You can use AI as a gym where you get it to ask you questions to practice mathematics problems.
You can use it as a language practice partner.
Or yes you can use it as a lazy shortcut.
So for some people it’ll become like a car and they’ll become cognitively obese. And for others they’ll use it like a gym and become even stronger and fitter.
Hot take: AI is not making us dumber; it is changing which cognitive skills matter. We may lose some memorization and recall, but we gain the ability to explore, connect ideas, and build at a much larger scale. The real danger is not cognitive decline but loss of agency; if people stop questioning and start accepting AI outputs as truth.
Intelligence, capacity, and wisdom are different traits. AI will almost certainly increase our capacity. It may increase intelligence if used as a tool for thinking rather than a substitute for thinking. The wisdom side is still unknown and will likely be determined by culture, not technology. The real question is not whether AI makes us dumber, but whether humanity becomes more capable and wise as our tools become more powerful.
AI definitely makes the effort less. Before I had to take the membership of a library search a book then read to understand what is being said, after Google came I could know a lot of any book online, now with AI I can converse to get to the details of different topics covered in the book. But AI adapts itself as per myself, if I am biased it will keep agreeing with me along with my biases so it won’t help me evolve from my biases that work I will have to do on my own. It all depends on me, if I intend to keep my biases AI will help me keep and rooted in them, if I show the intent to free myself from them, it will help me get to the content that might help me in breaking free of that programming.
Actually it’s making the 9 people that are using it dumb.
To be quite honest, I see striking similarities between AI reliance and the sensory or social degeneration associated with dementia. Under the Use It or Lose It theory of cognitive reserve, the brain requires consistent stimulation to maintain neural density. When individuals at an advanced age withdraw or suffer sensory loss, their brains effectively starve from a lack of input, accelerating decline.
I see a clear parallel here. By outsourcing critical thinking to AI, we may be inducing a form of cognitive sensory deprivation. We risk a state of digital atrophy where the mental faculties required for synthesis and problem solving weaken from disuse at a much younger age. While medical AI might one day eradicate dementia, that milestone remains far off. In the meantime, we may be trading our long term cognitive resilience for short term convenience.
Are we kicking off a far worse dementia epidemic? I genuinely pray to the Gods that we can dodge that bullet. I have witnessed Alzheimer’s in my family firsthand. It is brutal, gut wrenching, and the worst thing I have ever personally witnessed
I think it’s more revealing how dumb most people are than making them dumb, honestly. People are proving that they’re gullible, shallow, ignorant, lazy, and egotistical, and worse, proud of it; when given all the information in the world, they’ll still wait to be told what to think, what to believe in, and how to feel, because they have zero interest in finding out for themselves, and make a bunch of excuses for it when you suggest they do otherwise.
And on top of that, we’re increasingly living in a world in which the worst people on earth are free to manipulate these tendencies to their maximum benefit with literally zero negative consequences, because other shitty people won’t do anything about it because they hope they’ll also get to profit in some way, and the aforementioned dumbness of people has rolled out the red carpet for said shitty people to ruin the world as they see fit, as long as they pander to the common idiot in a way that they like, or at least have been trained to think they do.
The average person wasn’t ready for the internet, much less an algorithm that gives them one of their deepest desires: the excuse to never think for themselves.
Smartphones have already been making us measurably dumber. It’s hard to imagine a world where AI doesn’t accelerate that trend.Â
Upto some level. AI is good for manual taks and learning. But it should not be used for deep thinking and decision making.
I think yes. I mostly notice it with grammarly, which is some form of ai help, before that it supresses my editorial instincts when i write. I tend to care less about grammar, tone and diction because grammarly will correct it. So i toned down the use of that.
My worry is with people who uses ai to write entire stuff for them. How are you gonna find your authorial cadence if you keep on doing that. Like there are people who would rather write a lengthy prompt for an email than write the email themselves. How does that help?😅
I think the few smart people, let’s say 20 percent, who knows how to leverage ai well, it helps them. But 80 percent of us, because we tend to think less because of ai, yeah. It will make us dumber.
No. AI is amplifying. If you’re becoming dumber, it’s because you were already dumb and lazy before AI. Intelligent people are clearly realizing that their capabilities and reach are being expanded and facilitated by AI, and becoming even more intelligent in the process.