The near‑term AI risk isn’t mass job loss but people abandoning difficult reading and writing, which trains the mind, in favor of instant machine outputs. Borrowing 'time under tension' from fitness, the author argues cognition strengthens through sustained effort; remove that effort and we deskill ourselves just as AI ramps. The practical question is how schools, workplaces, and products preserve deliberate struggle before habits calcify.
— This reframes AI governance and education from displacement fears to designing environments that keep humans doing the hard cognitive work that builds capability.
Noah Smith
2025.10.05
66% relevant
Smith warns that dependence on 'AI magic' could infantilize the public and erode the Industrial Age’s rational habits, echoing the existing idea’s concern that offloading cognition to AI risks degrading human thinking and learning norms.
Clare Ashcraft
2025.09.29
90% relevant
The article argues that AI shortcuts risk preventing young people from learning to write and think end‑to‑end, echoing the existing idea that the near‑term danger is offloading hard cognitive effort and losing habits essential to human capability.
Derek Thompson
2025.09.22
100% relevant
The article’s refrain 'You have 18 months' and sections 'The end of writing, the end of reading' tied to AI cheating and NAEP concerns anchor the deskilling timeline and mechanism.
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