Generative AI chatbots capable of writing emails and computer code, translating, organising a trip or coming up with gift ideas are now readily available, prompting some to ask whether human brainpower could suffer for lack of use. A simple natural-language prompt is usually enough to draw a useable response from a service like ChatGPT or Claude, with the effects making themselves felt in schools and universities, workplaces from offices to courtrooms and our personal lives. Recent scientific studies suggest there could be harmful consequences to farming out cognitive tasks to AI. The technology’s adaptability to different kinds of problems sets it apart from previous waves of computerised aids. Electronic calculators, for instance, may have helped users solve equations — but left the method and reasoning process in human hands. Will humabeings be dumped by Generative AI ?
