Harnessing Artificial Intelligence for a Mere 10 Minutes Could Potentially Transform You into a Couch Potato and Dimwit, Reveals Study
“Using AI for Just 10 Minutes Might Make You Lazy and Dumb, Study Shows”
“Cognitive offloading, to put it simply, is the use of physical action to reduce the mental effort that tasks require. You take a photo of where you parked your car at the airport so you don’t have to remember it, or you pull up Google Maps when you’re lost instead of trying to recall or figure out the way on your own.”
Beginning with a seemingly harmless act like using a reminder for a parking spot to getting step-by-step navigation on Google maps, it’s clear some people can’t imagine life without artificial intelligence. And why should they? The convenience provided is undeniable. But at what cost?
Alas, the comfort of the Google Maps guided world, with its friendly ‘recalculating route’ has a dark side. According to more than one researcher crying from the digital wilderness, these technological crutches made possible by artificial intelligence might be robbing us of our ability to think independently.
In a nutshell, cognitive offloading is cramming the brain’s tasks onto an unsuspecting AI. Just picture Siri or Alexa desperately fanning themselves, laden with the effort of remembering countless birthdays, directions and facts which our lazy human minds just couldn’t handle themselves. Will our grey cells go grey with disuse?
One study backs up this unpalatable idea. Show two groups an intricate pattern, let them stare at it and then draw. The only catch? One group has to draw from memory, while the other, living in an AI wonderland, draw with the pattern right in front of them. Unsurprisingly, the first group wins. Basically, lazy thinkers, guided by AI, produce lazy results.
Nevertheless, this might not be the AI apocalypse just yet. Some argue that this cognitive offloading has been with us forever. Perhaps, the only difference is that now, the offloading is digital. Remember those calendars your grandma kept? AI is just the digital version.
But regardless of the advancement of technology, employees’ best buddies, who just so happen to be chief executives, are still quite fond of good old-fashioned human problem-solving. No one want robots making all the decisions, right? Mind you, this isn’t a spiel against AI – we can’t fight the tide of progress.
Moreover, the unfolding narrative of humans with their unchecked dependence on digital technology isn’t as grim as this portrait paints. It’s just a reminder to occasionally turn off Google Maps, just to see if one can still find home.
So let’s collectively hold our breath, wait for the brain-shrinking AI dystopia that some predict, or live blissfully cushioned in the comfort of cognitive offloading while searching for the nearest Starbucks on Google. The choice, like a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure novel from our increasingly dimming analog past, is yours. After all, who wants to remember the tedious task of remembering when we can just Google it?