Is AI making us dumber or smarter?

Artificial intelligence is everywhere. In our pockets, in our cars, in our offices. It writes texts, generates images, answers our emails, analyzes our data. As it takes on more and more complex tasks, the question arises: is it making us smarter or lazier? My high school math teacher used to address the class with his “young people, take your calculator, it's never wrong”. Is it the same with AI? 

The illusion of ease

It's tempting to let AI do the work. Why learn to write structured text when ChatGPT can do it in seconds? Why bother with complicated calculations when an AI-optimized spreadsheet instantly finds the best solution? This automation saves us time, but it also deprives us of the intellectual effort that forges our deep understanding of things.

Augmented intelligence

Yet AI isn't just a shortcut: it can also accelerate our thinking. It exposes us to new ideas, analyzes trends that we wouldn't have detected on our own, and suggests solutions that are sometimes unexpected. Like a good assistant, it doesn't replace our intelligence, it amplifies it - provided we know how to ask the right questions and interpret its answers with a critical mind. It challenges us, so let's challenge it too.

The challenge of critical thinking

The real danger is not that AI will make us dumber, but that it will lead us to stop questioning what it produces. If we accept its answers without thinking, we become dependent. And lazy. On the other hand, if we see it as a tool for dialogue and confrontation of ideas, it becomes a precious ally in refining our thinking.

Conclusion: a choice of posture

AI doesn't automatically make us dumber or smarter. It presents us with a choice: to remain passive and delegate our thinking, or to use these tools to go further, faster and better. Like all technology, it is what we make of it.

So the real question is not whether AI is making us dumber, but whether we're prepared to stay smart in the face of it.

In the end, it's up to us.