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How I’m overusing AI

A foreign keyboard made me realize I need to start practicing what I preach

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This weekend I had an epiphany.

AI is a fantastic tool that allows me to do things I’d never been able to do otherwise. Like the apps I’m currently building without having deep coding expertise. Or the level of detail I can now understand new topics by having AI research it for me and give me the key points.

Since the launch of ChatGPT, I’ve been using AI probably more than 99% of people out there. Train schedules, shopping recommendations, fitness tips, recipes, customer service complaints, fact checking, life advice. There is barely any area of my life that has gone untouched by AI’s influence.

The problem is this: AI has become a knee-jerk response rather than a deliberate decision. AI seems to know everything, is immediately available and it’s free. So why even bother using my brain for these small trivial-looking tasks?

Years ago, I let notifications on my phone consume me, letting constant pings drive me into a perpetual state of low-key anxiety. I’ve eventually had to disable notifications on all but 2 apps—and I’m feeling a lot better.

I'm realising I need to do something similar with AI.

I’m always telling people to think for yourself about the problem first, before using AI, yet I’m defaulting to AI in all kinds of trivial situations. I don’t practice what I preach.

And I’m noticing a subtle cognitive dependency that comes with all this exposure to AI. A recent MIT study backs this up, showing AI use causes cognitive debt, with LLM-use resulting in weaker neural connectivity.

I want you to know about it so you can notice when/if it creeps up on you.

The embarrassing story of how I realised this

The epiphany happened when I was at a bouldering gym in Berlin for the first time and, to enter it, I had to register my personal details on a computer which used a German keyboard.

Since I’m used to Norwegian keyboards, I spent several seconds looking at the keyboard and couldn’t figure out how to write the @-symbol.

My immediate response? Take a photo of the keyboard and ask ChatGPT.

I took the picture above, but did not manage to send the prompt, because the gym’s building had no phone signal, so I couldn’t access the internet.

I then went over to the reception and asked for help. The guy looked confused. He said it was marked on the keyboard. He made his way around the counter and came out to show me.

When we got to the registering station we both noticed that, not only did the Q-button have an @-symbol on it, there was even a big white sticker above the keyboard explaining exactly how to write the @-symbol.

So here I was, trying to use state-of-the-art intelligence to figure out something a 6-year old would probably do in a split second.

He laughed at me, and I was genuinely embarrassed.

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The honeymoon is coming to an end

It’s my belief that, as humans, we’re now in a honeymoon period in our relationship with AI, where it’s all pure euphoria and you want to use it for everything.

But there is an impending shock coming when we notice how much it dulls down our cognitive ability.

There will be a period of adjustment where, just like with the notifications on our phones, we start becoming more aware and critical of whether or not we actually need to use AI in a given situation.

Attention is all they need

On a societal level, here's what worries me most: this dependency doesn't happen by accident.

AI companies are heavily invested in becoming a layer between our perception and the world around us.

Your undivided attention is their golden goose. Just like mobile notifications, social media algorithms, netflix autoplay and short-form video. Mechanisms to make AI assistance feel necessary just to keep you engaged are coming, and some are already here. ChatGPT Pulse is a clear-cut example, but also the Atlas browser is telling —OpenAI wants to own the browser experience so they can show you ads.

Rather than relying on dopamine-spikes to keep you hooked, AI presents itself as a useful shortcut that frees you from having to think, all the while degrading the ability to think for yourself.

A beautiful servant and a lousy master

There’s a zen quote about the mind—our intellect—being “a beautiful servant and a lousy master”.

AI is so far the closest and most versatile extension of our intellect, and so I think the act of bringing awareness into its use is more relevant than with any other technology.

My message is simple and also a note to self.

Do a little "mind scan" on yourself before resorting to AI. This is a quick moment of awareness to ask: Am I actively thinking about the problem, or am I defaulting to AI?

Cultivate the habit of thinking through the problems you’re dealing with—at work and otherwise—on your own, even while having AI available at your fingertips.

This way we can let AI serve us, rather than getting used by it.

THAT’S ALL FOR THIS WEEK

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