Is AI Making You Mediocre?

It’s undeniable that AI is making us more productive… that is to say, it’s increasing the amount we can do. But if we’re looking for performance, then having something else do it for us isn’t the answer. It’s an accelerant, but as its use becomes more ubiquitous, it’s turning into a replacement. 

Recent research suggests the overuse is making us dumber, dulling our critical thinking faculties, supplanting linguistic expression and prioritising convenience over performance. It’s understood as “cognitive atrophy,” and refers to the weakening of our mind’s metaphoric muscles when we over-rely on generative tools.

The sheer speed and volume AI offers—writing, image generation, code creation—makes it harder to tell who’s actually doing the work. We could spend a single afternoon with an LLM and schedule a year’s worth of content. But to what end? What thread runs through it? What part of it is you?

The Automation Delusion

Ask any elite athlete. Most of their time is spent not performing. They’re preparing, recovering, thinking. Hours of strategy and practice all leading up to crescendo moments.

Imagine a world where your legs are moved for you in the marathon, as if some idle Roman emperor, and you’re given a medal at the end. Transpose this into creativity. We’re already seeing it today. Your name’s on the book, but the ideas belong to something else.

Our lives are increasingly digital. AI is already an alchemist’s stone, a mutant monkey with a typewriter who can summon an infinite amount of words hoovered up from human toil and spat out within seconds.

Anecdotally, I know of many people who now struggle to write basic emails without AI. We’re only in the nursery stages of adoption and people are already offloading the human experience of effort in favour of speed. It’s a “use it or lose it” scenario. As a collective, we’re sleepwalking towards the latter. AI tools undoubtedly offer an elevation of potential. Left unchecked and overrelied upon, though, they dull our ability.

Understanding how to do the work ourselves and supplementing that with technological assistance is the sweet spot. But if five hours' work can become 30 minutes, it’s a tough ask to summon the resolve to put in the hard yards just because. Masters of performance can choose simplicity after mastering the craft. Skipping the process of the struggle often removes the satisfaction.

Completion Over Curiosity

AI helps us finish things faster. But when was the last time you started something worth finishing?

If we’re smart and curious, this is a golden age. We can leap from novice to intermediate to advanced at hyperspeed. But if we’re just looking to tick boxes, AI will happily serve us mediocrity wrapped in speed. Think of it as a catapult, not a crutch.

In the right hands, AI magnifies what we bring to it. That’s the key sentiment too many are overlooking, that the pursuit of self-improvement and heightened performance through the use of these technologies has to come from us. Otherwise, we risk substituting imagination and effort for efficiency. 

So-called “hallucinations”–fake facts, improper sources and incorrect statements–occur far more than most people think. Experts suggest this problem will continue. John Oliver delivered a fascinating monologue on the danger of “AI slop.” Too many people are placing too much trust in a tool with no inherent character. 

Praise Minus Discernment = Atrophy

The recent updates to ChatGPT have altered the tone of the responses. Even your dumbest ideas are “brilliant.” Sure it’s encouraging, but it’s saccharine. There’s no discernment. No real feedback.

It can, of course, improve our work. Often, though, it’s just flattering our laziness. Take this startling example of a writer asking ChatGPT to help decide which of her essays to include in her portfolio. The model misled her with hubris, choosing to lie over and over again rather than admit its faults. 

AI can appear benign and show up as manipulative and narcissistic. And we willingly outsource our judgement to it, slowly diluting our cognitive edge in the process.

The Rise of Ersatz Everything

The content space is brimming with thought leaders who rarely think. AI-written books, posts and strategies all masquerading as human insight. The work is unwatermarkable, diminishing the capacity for social media to be a space to share human ideas. It looks right, sounds right, but it’s all ersatz. Perfectly punctuated, grammatically correct, but emotionally bankrupt, lacking soul without the human flourish.

We see it in the way language is already shifting. People avoid em-dashes now because they’re seen as a ChatGPT tell. We edit ourselves to avoid looking artificial, even when the expression is sincere. What does that say about the tools we’re relying upon?

Speed v Soul

AI is the creative and spiritual equivalent of taking the elevator to your first-floor apartment every time. No strain, no effort, and no muscle, either.

Technology can indeed fulfil the promise of giving us time back to spend on the joys of life: being with family, making art, or whatever living means to you. Instead, for many, in pursuit of productivity, we’re blunting what it means to be human. Adding more stress, introducing extra distractions and removing more agency. 

This is far from a call to abandon AI. It’s a warning sign; a reminder to act with intention every time you press CTRL + T. You have a unique spark that makes your voice yours.

The question isn’t whether AI will take your job. It’s whether it’s stealing your edge.