MIT professor Eric So says routine AI use dulls thinking
Original title: MIT professor says AI is taking over your brain
In a Boston Globe interview he describes a use-it-or-lose-it cycle and a student outsourcing diagnoses to a bot.
A condensed Boston Globe interview with MIT professor Eric So covers his book on how AI use changes thinking. So says finishing a work email in ChatGPT felt like removing his own thought process, then describes a cycle in which people stop practicing a skill, grow uncomfortable without AI, and reach for it more often. He argues friction, such as hints instead of answers, can keep users thinking but looks like a worse product. He also recounts parents and a medical student who, he says, already default to AI.
Unconfirmed: The medical-student and parent examples are So’s anecdotes and are not independently verified in the excerpt.
- So dates mainstream AI to very late 2022 and says skill loss showed up quickly.
- He says chatbot designs that add friction are rated more poorly by users.
- He frames the discomfort as absence of his own thinking, not an intruding system.
- The transcript cuts off before his stated main takeaway is finished.
From the original article
6 min read at bostonglobe.com
I recently interviewed So. This transcript has been condensed. Q .
By leawi · bostonglobe.com
A short excerpt; the article and its images belong to the publisher. Summary, key facts and assessment above are AI-written from the article and can be wrong.