It referenced Dr Evan Risko, a psychology prof at the University of Waterloo.

The worry is that, as Dr Risko puts it, generative AI allows one to "offload a much more complex set of processes". Offloading some mental arithmetic, which has only a narrow set of applications, is not the same as offloading a thought process like writing or problem-solving. And once the brain has developed a taste for offloading, it can be a hard habit to kick. The tendency to seek the least effortful way to solve a problem, known as "cognitive miserliness", could create what Dr Gerlich [Risko's colleague] describes as a feedback loop. As AI-reliant individuals find it harder to think critically, their brains may become more miserly, which will lead to further offloading. One participant in Dr Gerlich's study, a heavy user of generative AI, lamented "I rely so much on AI that I don't think I'd know how to solve certain problems without it."

It’s given me some food for thought.

The article is about the undesirable effects of outsourcing our memory. This was written about 10 months ago. Now we can outsource our reasoning as well as our memory.

So I think it’s even more important for us to do this mindfully, to figure out how to use technology to achieve our goals, but without losing our own abilities in the process.