2025 will be a beautiful year. I wish you all the best in everything you do, wish you learn more than ever and hope our paths cross (again)!
During the holidays, I was still working, and I had to write an email to a founder to say "No, we will not invest in your startup". As usual, and as a VC intern, you have your template for saying "no", but sometimes, I don't like it. I always try to give a personalized response to help as much as I can. So I thought about this email, but this time I felt lazy, I felt like I didn't want to use my creativity, I felt like I had an easier solution, so I thought differently.
Le Penseur de Rodin
In fact, I didn’t start my email on Gmail, no. I started it on this web page:
And I thought differently for this very simple task. I thought in a prompt way, not a doing way. I was trying to make the best prompt, not the best email. That is a different way of thinking: Asking someone to do something and doing the job we're supposed to do.
Strange. No?
But I discovered that I’m not alone, people are using AI for every action, even the easier tasks. What I observed:
“Despite the undeniable advantages of AI dialogue systems in streamlining research processes and enhancing academic efficiency, our analysis reveals a concerning trend: the potential erosion of critical cognitive skills due to ethical challenges such as misinformation, algorithmic biases, plagiarism, privacy breaches, and transparency issues. The nuanced exploration of these factors indicates a pressing need to address the ethical considerations surrounding using AI dialogue systems to prevent cognitive detriment among users.”
“Firstly, frequent use of digital technology appears to have a substantial impact (both negative and positive) on brain function and behavior (Small et al., 2020). (…) Secondly, one previous review aimed to explore both the positive and negative impacts of some technologies (e.g., digital devices, social media platforms, and AI tools) on crucial cognitive functions, including attention, memory, addiction, novelty-seeking, perception, decision-making, critical thinking, and learning abilities (Shanmugasundaram and Tamilarasu, 2023). Shanmugasundaram and Tamilarasu (2023) reported that over-reliance on AICs for answers, academic work, and information can reduce an individual's ability to think critically and develop independent thought.”
“When the usage and dependency of AI are increased, this will automatically limit the human brain’s thinking capacity. This, as a result, rapidly decreases the thinking capacity of humans. This removes intelligence capacities from humans and makes them more artificial. In addition, so much interaction with technology has pushed us to think like algorithms without understanding (Sarwat, 2018). Another issue is the human dependency on AI technology in almost every walk of life. Undoubtedly, it has improved living standards and made life easier, but it has impacted human life miserably and made humans impatient and lazy (Krakauer, 2016). It will slowly and gradually starve the human brain of thoughtfulness and mental efforts as it gets deep into each activity, like planning and organizing. High-level reliance on AI may degrade professional skills and generate stress when physical or brain measures are needed (Gocen and Aydemir, 2020).”
“The key to working more effectively with AI is in first understanding how to work independently of AI, according to the National Institute of Health. Researchers at Stanford point to the importance of explanations: where AI shares not just outputs, but insights. Insights into how the ultimate conclusion was reached, described in simple terms that invite further inquiry (and independent thinking).”
“Even though AI has offered a shortcut through the writing process, it actually still is important to be able to write and speak and think on your own. That’s what the focus of this research is: how debate engenders those aspects of being able to write and speak and study and research on your own.”
I've used AI instead of my brain for certain tasks, and I'm not sure if it was faster, better or more human. I'm not sure if it will help us be better. Pros and Cons. Let’s use it intelligently.
