Adults lose skills to AI; Children never build them.

[cwebber@social.coop]

Adults lose skills to AI; Children never build them. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-algorithmic-mind/202603/adults-lose-skills-to-ai-children-never-build-them

[Gast]

@cwebber The list with the key points is demolishing.

[Gast]

@cwebber Oooh, this quote, exactly!

"...In my view, the most likely explanation for this is not generational preference but biological development. The older group probably offloaded tasks they already knew how to perform. The younger group offloaded task they never learned how to perform. These neural pathways for source evaluation and constructing arguments were never formed. You can’t atrophy a muscle that was never built...."

[Gast]

@ai6yr @cwebber When mentoring students I often get the question - how do you figure things out so quickly.

Then I tell them that I've been messing with hardware and software since I was in my early teens - and I made tons of (innocent) mistakes.

When you get to be an adult you then know how to approach complex systems where you might not have this much margin.

Much of it is heuristics. Offloading heuristics (despite biases) is a VERY BAD IDEA.

[Gast]

@ai6yr @cwebber Along the same line. I often got the question, what major should I study. I tell them, pick the hardest you can handle (if not a bit more). You will never have as much time to deal with this stuff as during college.

[Gast]

@cwebber I was having this discussion with co-workers and came to the conclusion that with people relying on AI, things are gonna stagnate. no "new" knowledge will be pumped into the system so it will just be regurgitated slop once people stop thinking for themselves.

[Gast]

@ai6yr @cwebber One of my life regrets is not studying physics, with a minor in life sciences / biology (rather than having to do it the other way around - which stinks).