Overreliance on AI Erodes Cognitive Ability, So We Should Deliberately Reintroduce Friction into Daily Life
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/profile/carly-dober. "Relying on AI is rotting your brain. But here’s what you can do about it | Carly Dober | The Guardian." October 31, 2026. www.theguardian.com
The Gist
The author, a psychologist, argues that AI tools make life so easy that we stop exercising our brains, and that this can dull our thinking, curiosity and patience. Her fix is to add some deliberate difficulty back into your day: wait before asking AI, draft things yourself, keep AI off your phone, and spend time away from screens.
Conclusion
People should deliberately introduce friction and discomfort into their daily routines (limiting AI access, delaying AI use, doing tasks unaided, and taking screen-free time) to protect their brains from the cognitive harms of overreliance on AI.
Premises
- The human brain prefers the path of least resistance, and AI tools are designed to remove effort and deliver instant rewards, making them highly seductive and addictive.
- Heavy reliance on AI and similar technologies bypasses the mental effort (cognitive offloading) needed to build and maintain neural connections, which reduces cognitive reserve, curiosity and problem-solving over time.
- People tend to over-trust technology (automation bias and complacency) even when they know LLMs often produce inaccurate answers, which fosters passive acceptance of information.
- Constant scrolling and chatbot use crowd out the mind-wandering time the brain needs to function at its best.
- Deliberate friction (logging out, keeping AI off phones, waiting 30 minutes before asking AI, drafting first versions unaided, asking humans, screen-free hours) counteracts the instant-gratification loop and makes the brain work, like a push-up.
Assumptions
- Cognitive effort is necessary for maintaining cognitive capacities, and AI use substitutes for rather than complements that effort.
- Documented risks from heavy social media and LLM use generalize to ordinary, moderate AI users.
- The 'dose effect' implies harm comes from overuse, so reducing use or adding friction will reverse or prevent it.
- Individual behavioral strategies are sufficient and appropriate responses to a problem driven by product design and business models.
- Friction-based habits like delaying or logging out will actually be sustained by people who are tired and overwhelmed.
- The benefits of unaided effort outweigh the productivity benefits lost by not using AI.