Very timely, Daisy. Wherever I go, it seems that A1 is the subject on everyone's lips - even when I was sitting in the dentist's chair this morning! The two people I was talking to were not so much unenthusiastic as downright terrified about what was coming.
For me, the most challenging question is what happens when we consistently offload cognitive work and outsource it to AI? Does our cognitive ability begin to atrophy? Michael Gerlich from the Center for Strategic Corporate Foresight and Sustainability, SBS Swiss Business School certainly thinks so. He published a study in January, 2025 with 666 participants, which looked at how the use of AI decreases critical thinking through cognitive off-loading.
There's also a new book, The Memory Paradox: Why Our Brains Need Knowledge in an Age of AI by Barbara Oakley, et al. from Oakland University, et al., published in May of 2025. I haven't read it yet but it looks interesting.
Looking forward to your next post. So is Grok, by the looks of things!!
Thank you so much for this - I'm just starting the process of gathering all the 'benefits' of writing without AI to encourage my (online) students to understand why writing (and reading) are vital skills to our humanity. The connection between writing and thinking is one I actively try to build into my teaching - an advantage I have is that I can almost literally sit on a student's shoulder as they choose a word or place a paragraph and ask them to explain their choices to me. I hope that even when I'm not asking them, they may internalise those questions!
Fantastic analysis. On the subject of technology displacing human skill development we do not talk nearly enough about the advent of photography and how it replaced drawing from observation, which is the foundational skill for all real art and absolutely critical for honing the eye and learning to truly see.
The collapse of traditional architecture and urbanism and the advent of modern architecture and urbanism has much to do with the loss of fundamental drawing and navigational skills in humans, displaced by so much technology. There is a valiant movement to revive traditional architecture and urbanism (eg INTBAU, CSCA and others) but of course technology and industry, driven by short term financial gains of capitalism, are very hard to combat. I truly believe that all the forces trying to revive traditional human skillsets need to join forces.
Thanks for the read! One very real consequence is that if AI replaces too much of the learning process the (un?)forseen consequence is further inequality in schools. Knowledge inequality grows between those pupils who do know how to write using a pen and AI, and those pupils whose use of AI does not present them with the opportunity of developing 'analogue' skills.
I absolutely rate the point that writing is a great way to elaborate, reconsider and develop thoughts - as well as prevent them from dissipating - but I would add that there are lots of other ways humans have found to do this as well. Sketching, short form note taking, flow-charts, mind maps, discussion, presentation and verbal feedback, reading - indeed teaching itself is of course a valuable way to engage in meaningful thought and re-thought. 'No AI for learners' or 'always AI for learners' - as ever in education, both of these extremes are problematic; a worthwhile future education system needs to find the practical and workable ways to balance inbetween.
Very timely, Daisy. Wherever I go, it seems that A1 is the subject on everyone's lips - even when I was sitting in the dentist's chair this morning! The two people I was talking to were not so much unenthusiastic as downright terrified about what was coming.
For me, the most challenging question is what happens when we consistently offload cognitive work and outsource it to AI? Does our cognitive ability begin to atrophy? Michael Gerlich from the Center for Strategic Corporate Foresight and Sustainability, SBS Swiss Business School certainly thinks so. He published a study in January, 2025 with 666 participants, which looked at how the use of AI decreases critical thinking through cognitive off-loading.
There's also a new book, The Memory Paradox: Why Our Brains Need Knowledge in an Age of AI by Barbara Oakley, et al. from Oakland University, et al., published in May of 2025. I haven't read it yet but it looks interesting.
Looking forward to your next post. So is Grok, by the looks of things!!
Thank you so much for this - I'm just starting the process of gathering all the 'benefits' of writing without AI to encourage my (online) students to understand why writing (and reading) are vital skills to our humanity. The connection between writing and thinking is one I actively try to build into my teaching - an advantage I have is that I can almost literally sit on a student's shoulder as they choose a word or place a paragraph and ask them to explain their choices to me. I hope that even when I'm not asking them, they may internalise those questions!
Fantastic analysis. On the subject of technology displacing human skill development we do not talk nearly enough about the advent of photography and how it replaced drawing from observation, which is the foundational skill for all real art and absolutely critical for honing the eye and learning to truly see.
Yes, that’s a great analogy. I think back in the 18th century the Royal Navy used to teach drawing to its cadets - it was a vital skill.
The collapse of traditional architecture and urbanism and the advent of modern architecture and urbanism has much to do with the loss of fundamental drawing and navigational skills in humans, displaced by so much technology. There is a valiant movement to revive traditional architecture and urbanism (eg INTBAU, CSCA and others) but of course technology and industry, driven by short term financial gains of capitalism, are very hard to combat. I truly believe that all the forces trying to revive traditional human skillsets need to join forces.
Thanks for the read! One very real consequence is that if AI replaces too much of the learning process the (un?)forseen consequence is further inequality in schools. Knowledge inequality grows between those pupils who do know how to write using a pen and AI, and those pupils whose use of AI does not present them with the opportunity of developing 'analogue' skills.
I absolutely rate the point that writing is a great way to elaborate, reconsider and develop thoughts - as well as prevent them from dissipating - but I would add that there are lots of other ways humans have found to do this as well. Sketching, short form note taking, flow-charts, mind maps, discussion, presentation and verbal feedback, reading - indeed teaching itself is of course a valuable way to engage in meaningful thought and re-thought. 'No AI for learners' or 'always AI for learners' - as ever in education, both of these extremes are problematic; a worthwhile future education system needs to find the practical and workable ways to balance inbetween.
Daisy and interested others, the Gerlich book is The AI tools in Society: Impacts on Cognitive Offloading and the Future of Critical Thinking, 2025.