You're Using AI Right? You're Going To Be Dull and Stupid in Next 5 Years

Look, I need to tell you something that nobody wants to hear but everybody needs to understand right now. If you're sitting there using ChatGPT or Claude or whatever AI tool to write your emails, do your homework, create your presentations, or basically think for you, you're literally making yourself dumber. And I'm not being dramatic here. This is actually happening to millions of people and the research is starting to pile up.

You know what's wild? There's this thing called cognitive offloading. Basically, when you rely on external tools to do your thinking, your brain goes "oh cool, I don't need to work anymore" and it just stops developing those neural pathways. It's like if you started using a wheelchair when your legs work perfectly fine. Eventually, your legs would get weaker and weaker until you actually can't walk properly anymore. That's literally what's happening to people's brains right now with AI.

I was reading about this study from researchers at multiple universities and they found that people who consistently use AI for problem solving scored significantly lower on creativity tests and critical thinking assessments after just six months. Six months! That's nothing! And here's the kicker – they didn't even realize they were getting worse. They thought they were getting more efficient. More productive. But really? They were just becoming dependent.

Remember when GPS came out and suddenly nobody could navigate anymore without it? I literally have friends who can't drive to places they've been a hundred times without their phone telling them where to go. Their spatial awareness just vanished. Well, this is that times a thousand because we're not just talking about navigation. We're talking about writing, reasoning, creating, analyzing, everything that makes us human and intelligent.

And the worst part? The people who are going to suffer most are young people who are growing up with this stuff. Kids in school right now are using AI to write their essays, solve their math problems, even have conversations. They're not developing basic skills. There was this teacher on Reddit who said she had students who couldn't write a single paragraph without AI assistance. College students. Not little kids. College students who have never had to struggle with putting their own thoughts on paper because there's always been a bot to do it for them.

You want to know what really gets me fired up about this? The tech companies know this is happening. They absolutely know. But they keep pushing these tools harder and harder because they're making billions of dollars. They sell it to us as "augmentation" and "enhancement" but what they're really doing is creating dependency. It's the same playbook as social media. Make something that feels helpful, get people hooked, and then watch as they can't function without it.

There's actual neuroscience backing this up. Your brain is plastic, meaning it changes based on what you do with it. When you practice writing, you get better at organizing thoughts and expressing ideas. When you practice problem solving, you build stronger reasoning skills. When you practice remembering things, your memory gets better. But when you outsource all of that to AI? Those parts of your brain literally start to atrophy. Use it or lose it isn't just a saying. It's biological reality.

I'm not saying technology is evil or we should all go live in caves. I use technology every single day. But there's a massive difference between using tools to help you do things you already know how to do and using tools as a replacement for ever learning those things in the first place. If you're a professional writer using AI to check grammar, fine. But if you never learned to write properly because you always had AI to do it, you're screwed.

And here's what really scares me about the next five years. This is going to create a massive divide in society. You're going to have people who used AI strategically, who maintained and developed their skills while using technology as an assistant, and they're going to be fine. They're going to be sharp, capable, valuable. Then you're going to have this whole other group of people who let AI do everything for them, and their skills will have completely deteriorated. They won't be able to think critically, solve problems independently, or create anything original. And when they find themselves in situations where they can't use AI, they're going to be completely lost.

Companies are already starting to notice this in hiring. I've seen job postings that specifically say "must demonstrate ability to work without AI assistance." They're testing for it in interviews now. Because they've hired people who looked great on paper, had impressive portfolios, but couldn't actually do anything without their AI crutch. And those people are getting fired.

The really frustrating thing is how many people are in complete denial about this. They'll say "oh I'm just being more efficient" or "this is the future, adapt or die." But they're missing the point entirely. Yes, AI is the future. But your brain is your most valuable asset, and if you don't use it, it will decline. That's not opinion. That's fact. That's how human biology works.

We've seen this pattern before with every major technology shift. When calculators became common, mental math skills plummeted. When spell check became standard, spelling abilities dropped. When autocorrect appeared, people stopped learning proper grammar. Every single time we get a technology that does our thinking for us, we become less capable of doing that thinking ourselves. And every single time, we tell ourselves it doesn't matter because we have the technology. Until we don't. Until the system crashes or the tool isn't available or the situation requires actual human intelligence and we realize we've lost something we can never fully get back.

So yeah, if you're using AI for everything right now, in five years you're probably going to be significantly less sharp than you are today. Your creativity will be lower. Your problem solving ability will be weaker. Your writing will be worse. Your memory will be shot. And you'll be completely dependent on tools that you don't control and that might not always be there when you need them.

But hey, at least your emails will be efficiently written by a robot, right? Worth it?