“My Conversation with Artificial Intelligence: On the Intellectual Process and Curiosity, Human Creativity and Self-Reflection (Part 2)”

Me: Are there any benefits to the human brain or the cognitive process if it refrains from using AI?

ChatGPT: “Yes. And this is actually one of the most important questions about AI: some forms of cognitive effort are beneficial precisely because they are effortful.

The brain isn’t merely a machine for producing correct answers. The process of struggling to understand, remember, imagine, argue, and reflect helps shape the brain itself.

What you gain by doing the thinking yourself

1. Struggling with a problem builds deeper understanding.
   When you work through a difficult argument rather than immediately asking AI for the answer, you have to construct connections between ideas. That effort can produce more durable learning.
2. Retrieval strengthens memory.
   Trying to remember something before looking it up exercises your ability to retrieve information. If AI always supplies the information immediately, you may know where to get the answer without actually retaining it.
3. Writing develops thought.
   This is especially important for scholars. Writing isn’t simply recording thoughts you’ve already had. Writing is often how you discover what you think. When you formulate an argument yourself, you encounter contradictions, gaps, and unexpected connections.
4. Boredom can generate creativity.
   Periods without stimulation give the mind room to wander, associate seemingly unrelated ideas, and develop possibilities. Constantly filling those spaces with AI-generated material may reduce opportunities for spontaneous thought.
5. Difficult conversations develop judgment.
   Reasoning with another human being requires interpreting tone, ambiguity, emotion, competing interests, and incomplete information. Those are enormously complicated cognitive processes.
6. Reflection develops a sense of self.
   When you sit alone and ask, What do I actually believe? Why do I believe it? What experiences shaped this belief? Could I be wrong? you’re doing something more profound than information processing. You’re constructing and examining your own intellectual identity.

There’s an important distinction

Think about the difference between these two approaches:

Approach A

“AI, tell me what I should think about this.”

versus

Approach B

“Here is what I think. Challenge my assumptions. Give me arguments I haven’t considered. Tell me where my reasoning is weak.”

The second preserves human agency.

And I’d actually encourage you to use AI in that second way.”