The AI Paradox: We Gained Productivity, But at What Cost?

As a software engineer, I live immersed in the Artificial Intelligence revolution. On a daily basis, I use LLMs (Large Language Models) and autonomous agents that act as true “lifesavers.” They write scripts for repetitive tasks, suggest code refactoring, point out obscure errors, and sometimes write entire solutions—not always 100% correct, admittedly, but the effort is laudable.

Productivity has skyrocketed. I look back and see the evolution of access to information:

1. 80s/90s: The era of scarcity, where one had to flip through dozens of physical books to find a relevant paragraph.
2. 2000s: The search era, where we visited ten different websites via Google to piece together an answer for a school assignment.
3. Today: The era of the ready-made answer. AI delivers information filtered, digested, and formatted. A dream, right?

But amidst this technological euphoria, a silent question begins to echo: At what cost?

The Outsourcing of Reasoning (Cognitive Offloading)

There is a phenomenon studied in cognitive psychology called “Cognitive Offloading.” Basically, it refers to the act of reducing mental processing demand by using external tools. Studies show that when we know information is accessible externally (on the internet or via AI), our brain chooses not to store it.

Reference: A classic study by Sparrow et al. (2011), often called “The Google Effect,” demonstrated that people are less likely to remember information if they believe it will be available for later consultation.

This leads us to a brutal evolutionary analogy. Our ancestors were born hunters; survival depended on that skill. With evolution and the convenience of modern society, we lost that ability. If we were dropped on a deserted island today, how many would survive? We swapped the spear for the food delivery app. Hunger is satisfied, but the ability to obtain it autonomously has atrophied.

The Brain is a Muscle: “Use It or Lose It”

Neuroscience uses the term neuroplasticity. The brain is constantly remodeling itself based on what we do—and what we don’t do.

I will never forget a university professor who, years ago, made a confession that made the class laugh: “Wow, calculators are so addictive. Sometimes I catch myself doing simple math on them, like 2x3.” At the time, it seemed comical. Today, it feels like a prophecy.

If we delegate 100% of our tasks to AI, we begin to forget the fundamentals. In my field, software engineering, the danger is real. If I ask AI to write all my loops and conditional logic, will the day come when I forget the syntax of a simple for loop?

The scientific answer tends to be yes. Just as a skeletal muscle suffers atrophy (sarcopenia) when we stop going to the gym, unused neural connections suffer what we call synaptic pruning. The brain, aiming to save energy, eliminates connections that are not reinforced.

Reference: The principle of “Use It or Lose It” is widely documented in neuropsychology. Complex cognitive skills require constant maintenance. Without the “effort” of reasoning, proficiency drops.

The Risk of Artificial “Stupidity”

The danger is not the tool, but the passivity. By accepting the AI’s answer without questioning or understanding the constructive process behind it, we become mere operators of a black box. We stop being architects and become merely supervisors—and bad ones at that, because without the technical foundation (which we are forgetting), we won’t know how to judge if the AI is hallucinating or being inefficient.

How to Keep Your Brain “Fit” in the AI Era

We don’t need to throw our computers away and go back to caves. We need, however, intentionality. Here are strategies to keep using AI without atrophying the intellect:

1. Research with AI, Execute Manually, Compare at the End

Use AI to accelerate the research phase and gather references, but do the “dirty work” (writing the code, the article, or the summary) manually. Only after you have your solution ready, ask the AI to generate its version and compare the results. This turns the AI into a professor showing alternative paths, rather than a substitute doing the work for you.

2. Don’t Delegate 100% (The 2x3 Rule)

If the task is simple or fundamental to your field, do it yourself. Force your brain to retrieve the syntax, the historical date, or the mathematical formula. Use AI only afterward to check if you were right.

3. Reverse Code Review

When AI generates code or text for you, don’t just “Copy + Paste.” Read it line by line. Try to explain to yourself (or to a rubber duck) what that code does and why it was done that way. If you can’t explain it, you haven’t learned it.

4. “Offline” Study Groups and Practice

Create learning rituals without AI. Gather with colleagues to discuss system architecture or solve logic problems on a whiteboard, without the aid of Copilot or GPT.

5. Theoretical Deep Dive

Use the time AI saved you on repetitive tasks to study complex concepts and the “internals” of your profession. Understand how the wheel works instead of just using it.

Conclusion

Artificial Intelligence is a powerful lever for the human mind, but it shouldn’t be a crutch. Comfort is addictive, just like food delivery or the calculator for “2x3.” It is up to us to decide whether we will use this technology to expand our capabilities or to replace them to the point of irrelevance.

To reiterate, I am not against AI, I just believe that with its proper use, we will not suffer intellectual losses.

Don’t let your brain atrophy. Next time you go to write that simple script, try doing it yourself first. Your cognitive “muscle” will thank you.