There is a strange reality around us. Artificial intelligence is becoming the most powerful tool ever created by humanity. It can write, code, design, plan, summarise and even think ahead for us. As Sam Altman said, "its like carrying a bunch of PhD level experts in your pocket". Everyone talks about how AI will make humans smarter, faster, more capable. But when I look closely, it's different. It's a strange effect which I previously never imagined.
I always knew human behaviours were being cognitively altered by apps, but not once did I think AIs would make humans dumber. There is an evident paradox which is pushing the limits of human intelligence creating a strong divide between the thinkers and the followers. As humans our brain needs consistent activation of cognitive muscles to make ourselves smarter. Smarter does not mean a directly proportional IQ. It means the ability to learn and evolve as per our surroundings. This increases the brain plasticity which is one of the most important things that makes humans better than other creatures.
But with AI, people have started to outsource thinking. A similar phenomenon occurred when calculators were invented. People stopped doing basic mental math and lost relative cognitive ability, while a small group of people focussed on more intelligent math problem solving. Another very interesting example is GPS, where people stopped remembering routes. In all these inventions the common aspect was that majority humans outsourced their thinking and took help of the inventions to reach an outcome. But with AI it's different, as AI isn't doing one thing, it's able to do many things in cognitive synergy resulting in a similar thinking capability like a human brain. While the top 1% of people use AI to enhance their cognitive ability, the majority are falling into the trap of using AI for any question that strikes their brain.
Over time, this creates two very different types of people. A small group who use AI as leverage to push themselves harder, and the large majority who let AI replace their effort completely.
This is why I call it learning capitalism. Just like in economic capitalism, where resources accumulate to those who know how to use money well, intellectual power will accumulate to those who know how to use AI well. The fittest brain workers will grow sharper because they combine their own thinking with AI’s power. The rest will slowly fall behind, becoming dependent consumers of intelligence rather than producers of it.
The majority of people offload their primary cognitive skill while a minority built new levels of mastery on top. This magnifies this divide a hundred times more between average and the top learners.
The paradox is that, AI should have been a great equaliser for the masses, as it gives everyone the ability to learn, create and build. Yet the more powerful it becomes, the more it risks creating an intelligence inequality unlike anything we have seen. A few people will become cognitive athletes, training their minds every day with AI as a sparring partner. Everyone else will become sheep, blindly following whatever output the machine gives them.
The consequences of this are exponential. Work will not only be divided between skilled and unskilled but between those who can think and those who cannot. Entire careers will disappear for people who are unable to add original thinking on top of AI’s answers. Meanwhile, those who continue to think deeply, to challenge themselves, to use AI as an amplifier rather than a crutch, will build the next generation of companies, products and ideas.
I believe the future of personal growth depends on how you relate to AI. If you treat it like a sofa, it will make you comfortable and weak. If you treat it like a gym, it will make you strong. Asking it to do your work is easy. Using it to sharpen your own thinking is hard. The difference between the two will define who thrives in the next decades.
Intelligence is no longer evenly distributed because of access to books or schools or the internet. Intelligence is now a choice. It is the decision to keep exercising your brain in the age of effortless answers. AI will not kill thinking. People will kill their own thinking by choosing convenience over struggle.
So the question is not whether AI will make humanity smarter or dumber, but whether we choose to be thinkers or followers, whether we choose to become Learning Capitalists in our lives and careers.
This is why I call it learning capitalism. Just like in economic capitalism, where resources accumulate to those who know how to use money well, intellectual power will accumulate to those who know how to use AI well. The fittest brain workers will grow sharper because they combine their own thinking with AI’s power. The rest will slowly fall behind, becoming dependent consumers of intelligence rather than producers of it.
The majority of people offload their primary cognitive skill while a minority built new levels of mastery on top. This magnifies this divide a hundred times more between average and the top learners.
The paradox is that, AI should have been a great equaliser for the masses, as it gives everyone the ability to learn, create and build. Yet the more powerful it becomes, the more it risks creating an intelligence inequality unlike anything we have seen. A few people will become cognitive athletes, training their minds every day with AI as a sparring partner. Everyone else will become sheep, blindly following whatever output the machine gives them.
The consequences of this are exponential. Work will not only be divided between skilled and unskilled but between those who can think and those who cannot. Entire careers will disappear for people who are unable to add original thinking on top of AI’s answers. Meanwhile, those who continue to think deeply, to challenge themselves, to use AI as an amplifier rather than a crutch, will build the next generation of companies, products and ideas.
I believe the future of personal growth depends on how you relate to AI. If you treat it like a sofa, it will make you comfortable and weak. If you treat it like a gym, it will make you strong. Asking it to do your work is easy. Using it to sharpen your own thinking is hard. The difference between the two will define who thrives in the next decades.
Intelligence is no longer evenly distributed because of access to books or schools or the internet. Intelligence is now a choice. It is the decision to keep exercising your brain in the age of effortless answers. AI will not kill thinking. People will kill their own thinking by choosing convenience over struggle.
So the question is not whether AI will make humanity smarter or dumber, but whether we choose to be thinkers or followers, whether we choose to become Learning Capitalists in our lives and careers.