Cognitive decline is a broad term, and a research paper could claim "decline" if even a single cognitive metric loses strength.

When writing was invented, societies started depending on long form memorization less, which is a cognitive "decline". When calculators were invented, societies started depending on mental math less, which is a cognitive "decline".

I'm sure LLMs are doing the same thing. People aren't getting dumber, they are just outsourcing tasks more, so that their brains spend more time on the tasks that can't be outsourced.

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yuehhangalt 5 days ago | parent | next [-]

My concern is more attributed to the tasks that can't or won't be outsourced.

People who maintain a high level of curiosity or a have drive to create things will most assuredly benefit from using AI to outsource work that doesn't support those drives. It has the potential to free up more time for creative endeavors or those that require more deep thinking. Few would argue the benefit there.

Unfortunately, anti-intellectualism is rampant, media literacy is in decline, and a lot of people are content to consume content and not think unless they absolutely have to. Dopamine is a helluva drug.

If LLMs reduce the cognitive effort at work, and the people go home to doom scroll on social media or veg out in front of their streaming media of choice, it seems that we're heading down the path of creating a society of mindless automatons. Idiocracy is cited so often today that I hate to do so myself, but it seems increasingly prescient.

Edit: I also don't think that AI will enable a greater work-life harmony. The pandemic showed that a large number of jobs could effectively be done remotely. However, after the pandemic, there was significant "Return to Office" movement that almost seemed like retribution for believing we could achieve a better balance. Corporations won't pass on the time savings to their employees and enable things like 4-day work weeks. They'll simply expect more productivity from the employees they have.

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IAmBroom 5 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Absolutely true.

Also, domesticated dogs show indications of lower intelligence and memory than wolves. They don't have to plan complex strategies to find and kill food, anymore.

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Taek 5 days ago | parent [-]

The difference between us and dogs is that we DO still need to make a salary. Dogs live in a lap of luxury where their needs are guaranteed to be handled.

But humans need jobs, and jobs need to capture value from society. So we do actually still have to stay sharp, whatever form "sharp" takes.

	▲	pessimizer 5 days ago \| parent [-]
		You and dogs have the same job, which is to please the boss. The boss then takes care of you like a child, either with a paycheck (with which you can pay servants to supply your earthly needs), or directly if you're a dog and lack both thumbs and pockets to hold a wallet or a phone. A domestic dog would die left alone in a forest, about two or three weeks after you would. If you're an entrepreneur, your job is to please the customer and to squeeze your vendors and employees. You still take little to no part in directly taking care of yourself, except as a hobby. Unless you want to be congratulated for wiping your own ass or lifting a fork to your mouth.

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infecto 5 days ago | parent | prev [-]

This is super interesting and I had not thought about it like that!