How AI Is Reshaping Our Intelligence?
Interactions with AI can impact independent and critical thinking.
Collaborating with AI can help individuals perform as well as a team of two and broaden their expertise.
Oursourcing your thinking to AI could lead to the erosion of critical and independent thinking.
The long-term impact of AI interactions on skill development, trust, and cognition remain uncertain.
As we increasingly turn to artificial intelligence (AI) for knowledge, guidance, and work, how does our interaction with AI impact our performance and our ability to think for ourselves?
New research published as a working paper, The Cybernetic Teammate: A Field Experiment on Generative AI Reshaping Teamwork and Expertise, finds that collaborating with AI boosts work performance significantly. Teams using chat-based AI outperformed individuals without AI by 40%, while individuals using AI improved their results by 37%, matching the performance of two-person teams.
AI as a "Cybernetic Teammate"
Researchers examined the experiences of 776 professionals at Procter & Gamble, who work in real product innovation between May and July 2024. The study found that:
AI significantly enhanced individual performance, allowing a single person to match the performance of a two-person team.
Participants reported that working with AI was an emotionally positive experience, increasing excitement and enthusiasm and reduced frustration.
The study suggest that AI should be viewed as a "cybernetic teammate" rather than as a passive tool.
However, while the short-term benefits of AI collaboration on performance are evident, the long-term impact on trust, skill development, creativity, emotional well-being, and cognition remains uncertain.
The Risks: Is AI Weakening Our Ability to Think For Ourselves?
Recent research warns of the potential dangers of outsourcing critical thinking to AI, including:
Cognitive offloading and erosion of critical thinking. A study of 319 workers who use generative AI regularly found that over-reliance on AI diminished independent problem-solving abilities. A second study on cognitive offloading to AI found that outsourcing problem-solving and critical thinking to AI lowered critical thinking.
Lower creativity and originality. Those who used AI for writing and research scored lower in problem-solving and analytical thinking. Overuse of AI for brainstorming can reduce originality, as AI-generated ideas often reflect existing patterns rather than novel insights.
Over-reliance on AI answers without verification. Users who trust AI without cross-checking sources increases the risk of biases and misinformation. This over-reliance also weakens independent thinking and judgment.
The Benefits: Can AI Enhance Critical Thinking?
Not all interactions with AI will lead to cognitive decline. When used actively rather than passively, AI can enhance critical thinking.
AI as a thought partner. People who engage with AI critically by debating, questioning, and refining AI responses are more likely to maintain their analytical skills.
Enhancing, not replacing, human judgment. Conceptualizing AI as a synthetic teammate, rather than an authority, keeps human judgment central.
Broadening core expertise. The Cybernetic Teammate study found that AI collaboration helped professionals expand their domain expertise. AI can help people engage with unfamiliar topics more effectively.
Finding Balance: The Future of AI and Intelligence
The relationship between AI and human intelligence does not need to be a zero-sum game. Whether AI enhances or diminishes our thinking depends on how we use it:
Use AI to challenge your thinking, not replace it.
Engage with AI to deepen your understanding of unfamiliar topics beyond your core expertise.
Cross-check and verify AI-generated content instead of passively using it as a primary source.
Interact with AI critically to strengthen analytical skills.
AI has the power to enhance our thinking— if we use it wisely.
The next time you use AI, ask yourself: Am I using this to deepen my understanding, or am I letting it do the thinking for me?
Marlynn Wei, MD, PLLC © Copyright 2025 All Rights Reserved.