Tyler Cowen: Don’t Let AI Make You Dumber

Have we already passed the peak of human intelligence? AI models have come under heavy criticism lately, with the charges ranging from an increased risk of ordinary hacks to the possibility that they will kill us all, but one abiding critique is that AI systems will make us stupid and turn us into docile pets. After all, why should you bother to think when very smart AI models can do that for you?

One of the leading purveyors of this critique is Gregory Conti, a professor at Princeton and a leading intellectual himself whose writing has appeared in The Free Press. Conti wrote: “The channels for the human mind to swim in will dry up, one by one.” He continues that campaign on X. In an podcast interview with Lex Fridman, New York Times columnist Ezra Klein expressed the same worry in more open terms, saying, “My biggest concern about AI is we’re going to make ourselves much stupider without realizing it.” University students may be affected the most, as AI-enabled cheating could prevent many from learning to think, write, and solve problems.

I am more optimistic. In fact, I believe we may see a renaissance of the human intellect. After all, Conti and the other critics have hardly ceased their own efforts or trotted off into graceful retirements.

One intellectual advantage of AI models is that they can, or soon will, free up our time from tedious and thankless tasks. That includes filling out forms online, booking flights and hotels, doing our taxes, and writing mundane emails. That will give us the option—and I do stress the word option—of devoting more of our time and energies to creative pursuits. That goes for students too, who will be able to spend less time on the process of research and more on consuming and applying knowledge.