FIELD GUIDE · AI & YOUR BRAIN
AI makes you faster today and rustier tomorrow. The fight is over which mental work is drudgery — and which work is how judgment gets built.
UPDATED 2026-09-21
TL;DR
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A 2025 Microsoft Research and Carnegie Mellon study surveyed 319 knowledge workers about 936 real cases of generative-AI use. More confidence in the AI lined up with less reported critical thinking; more confidence in themselves lined up with more. Self-reported and observational — about work practices, not proof AI lowers intelligence.
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The same study found workers describing a shift: less gathering information, more verifying it; less solving directly, more integrating AI responses; less executing tasks, more stewarding them. AI can move cognitive effort instead of removing it — but verification is itself a skill.
03
A randomized field experiment with more than 6,000 workers found generative-AI access changed work patterns: less time on email, faster document work, meeting time mostly unchanged. Offloading creates measurable efficiency without saying whether long-term skill goes up or down.
04
A longitudinal navigation study found heavier habitual GPS use lined up with worse spatial-memory performance and steeper later decline. GPS isn't generative AI. But it's a decent warning that delegating a cognitive task can change the skill underneath.
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Calculators, GPS, search, and now generative AI all move the line between knowing and retrieving.