Artificial intelligence is one of the most profound innovations of modern technology, offering unmatched efficiency gains across various sectors. However, even with a rise in efficiency, there is a hidden danger: skill atrophy. We humans strengthen skills by repeating them over and over again, and scientifically speaking, we are strengthening our neural connections and pathways related to tasks, but the key thing is that it has to be used frequently; otherwise, you lose it.
When we use AI for anything that is cognitively demanding, we offload our natural cognition to the AI, creating something called cognitive debt. The debt part of this term simply refers to us not using the neural paths and associations that we innately have. Overtime with enough “debt” accumulated will hinder us from particularly completing the task delegated to AI in itself, causing skill atrophy.
However, this does not mean there is an immediate decline in cognitive abilities; the capacity is there but atrophied due to periods of "inactivity."
A study conducted by MIT shows AI usage for cognition-related or thinking tasks shows the brain being underengaged for the task and not being accurately able to recall absolutely in the generated itself [1]. We actively see a cognitive decline or atrophy as a result of cognitive debt acquired by the usage of generative AI.
Hence, we should be very mindful in how we use AI in our day-to-day lives and be mindful of the effects. We would recommend using non-cognitive tasks only to have efficiency gains while retaining our own cognitive abilities and skills.