Am I Using AI to Extend My Thinking, or Avoid It?

My mom used to say: “Anything in excess is poison.” I didn’t think much of it when I was younger. But over time, I started noticing something. I used to remember phone numbers. I used to do quick mental math. I used to sit with problems longer before reaching for help. Then smartphones arrived. They didn’t make me less intelligent. They simply removed the need to practice those small habits. Now I see a similar shift happening again. At a workshop recently, a speaker said something that stayed with me: “Generative AI optimizes for the statistical average.” Whether taken literally or not, the idea made me pause. Because LLMs are incredibly powerful. They can retrieve, summarize, connect, and generate at a speed no human can match. But every powerful tool changes what we practice. Calculators changed arithmetic. GPS changed navigation. Search engines changed memorization.

So the question becomes: What will LLMs change in us? The more I use them, the more I notice a subtle shift. I reach for answers faster than I sit with questions. I sometimes generate before I think through the problem. And it makes me ask myself: Am I using AI to extend my thinking… or to avoid it? Because the value was never just the answer. It was the struggle required to reach it. I don’t worry about AI becoming smarter than me. I worry about becoming too dependent on something that isn’t thinking at all.