This is the second post I am writing, in a sequence, about AI.

It is not going to entail this time anything related to the environment or climate change issues, although these are for sure present as a consequence of AI usage.

It is about something I read today - there are researches that suggest that using AI reduces brain activity in some ways.

It is concerning.

Because I work with the tool everyday, and I honestly feel I got sometimes dumber, that my thought patterns are non linear and less intense than before.

The first is that using extensively AI is not inherently good - contrary maybe to the belief of lots of people out there. It increases productivity, but there are no-negligible costs associated to it.

The second is that those costs are de facto an attention span decrease, which happens to be the case as well with me, who did not entirely read the study because I thought I was wasting my time and wanted a short and fast summary.

The third is that it is not strictly AI that is making us dumber but is the act of giving a simpler choice to a more difficult one.

People, since dawn of time, have an intrinsic system that, given two choices, they will prefer the former over the latter if the associated cost is lower. An associated cost could also mean that the cognitive effort I have to put in is less. This, of course, over a longer period of time, might have actually a controversial benefit, as it is the case with AI.

An extensive use of those tools can hinder your capacity to think, write, and remember what you wrote and said as well, as your neurons and inside brain pattern are no more trained to experience "fatigue."

I want to conclude here with the extended mind hypothesis which states that the mind does not exclusively reside in the brain or the body, but extends into the physical word. It is exactly in the physical world that we interact day by day with tools, that might actually shrink our mind, rather that augmenting its capabilities.

I will continue writing this newsletter, at my best, even if no one is gonna read it.

And I strongly advise anyone out there who has now read those lines to start something similar on their own as well.

Why?

Because it is important to strengthen your brain, to get back to writing, to build—without the ease of any tool that might assist you.

You have to do it for your brain, for your capacity in the long run to distinguish what is right from what is wrong, what is right from what is easy.

See you soon

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