It's possible we are from very similar backgrounds but bring wildly different perspectives. I'm always suspicious of statements of the form "X will prevent people from Y".

The amount of progress humans have made over 2000 years, especially the last 100, is just phenomenal. If anything, there's very little evidence that any X prevents people from Y. X certainly might not require people to Y anymore but I don't question what a motivated person can do just like I don't question what an unmotivated person can refuse to do.

It would help if you expanded on "it will prevent people from building an understanding of <insert problem domain X here>", but could one interpretation of it be "AI will prevent people from building an understanding of good software design patterns" because AI allows people to just vibe code and pay no attention to design patterns at all?

Let me start by asking you this:

Where does the majority of an individual's general knowledge come from?