Mike Unhinged 6
Your Brain on ChatGPT?
The Bigger Issue Is Ownership
A new MIT-linked study is making the rounds
because of one striking claim:
When people used ChatGPT to write,
their neural connectivity during the task
was much lower than those who wrote unaided,
and lower than those who used search.
That matters.
But the biggest lesson is not:
“AI makes you stupid.”
The bigger lesson is this:
What you outsource,
you may stop developing.
If a person hands over too much
of the thinking process too early,
the result may still look polished.
But polished
is not the same as integrated.
Fast
is not the same as formed.
Output
is not the same as ownership.
That distinction
matters more now than ever.
At LeadU, this is why I keep emphasizing
that the issue is not simply AI use.
The issue is:
how AI is used,
when it is used,
and whether the person remains
meaningfully engaged
in the act of thinking.
Used well,
AI can extend reflection,
test assumptions,
compare frames,
and sharpen judgment.
Used poorly,
AI can quietly shift a person
from author to editor…
from generator to reviewer…
from thinker to confirmer…
That is a very different future.
The risk is not just
weaker memory
or less creativity in the moment.
The deeper risk
is that people begin to lose touch
with the felt experience of:
“this is my thought,”
“this is my sentence,”
“this is my reasoning,”
and eventually,
“this is my work.”
That is not augmentation.
That is substitution
with a friendly interface.
So the practical implication
is simple:
For important work,
think first,
then use AI.
Draft before prompting.
Frame before outsourcing.
Generate before editing.
Use AI to extend your cognition,
not replace the struggle that builds it.
The struggle
is not always the problem.
Sometimes the struggle
is the very place
where capability is formed.
That is a key distinction
for anyone serious about
LEADING AI
rather than being quietly
led by it.
At LeadU,
we are increasingly convinced
that the future belongs not to those
who use AI the most,
but to those who use it
without surrendering
authorship,
awareness,
and agency.
PS: An unhinged thought?
Our minds are adapting to complexity
and refusing to remember or memorize trivialities…
shunting capability
to our adaptive interface…
So when studies fuss over
what we can remember,
they should also allude to
what we must forget.
#LeadingAI
#ChatGPT
#AI
#CognitiveDebt
#CriticalThinking
#SelfAwareness
#Leadership
#FutureOfWork
#LeadU
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Mike R Jay & Gary Gile
Founders @ The NEW LeadU
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You, Me, and We @LeadU
Mike R. Jay is a developmentalist utilizing consulting, coaching, advising and helping… emergent from dynamic inquiry as a means to cue, scaffold, support, lift, and protect; offering inspiration to aspiring leaders who are interested in humaning where being, doing, having, becoming, contributing, relating, guiding to produce resilience and wellth help people lead generative lives.
