Will AI make us dumber or more efficient?

Is AI Making Us Smarter, Dumber, or Just More Efficient?

Written by Dr. Gideon Fadiran, Dr. David Fadiran

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has quickly gone from being a futuristic idea to an everyday tool. It powers our searches, helps draft our emails, curates our content, and even aids in decision-making. As AI becomes more integrated into our daily lives, we must ask ourselves a deeper question:

Is AI Making Us Smarter, Dumber, or Just More Efficient?

The simple answer? It’s complicated. This is not a binary choice. AI makes us more efficient, but it might also reshape how we learn and retain knowledge, potentially to our detriment.

Efficiency Is Undeniable

The evidence is clear: AI helps people accomplish tasks faster. Whether it's writing code, summarizing research, crafting professional emails, or learning new skills, AI significantly reduces the time and effort needed to complete these tasks.

In the past, to understand a topic you weren't familiar with, say climate policy or neural networks, you would have to read multiple articles, review several papers, and perhaps watch some lengthy lectures. You would piece together an understanding over time. Now, with a well-crafted prompt, you can obtain a clear and concise explanation or even a publishable article without truly grasping the subject's depth. That's efficiency.

But this trend raises a critical concern.

The Risk of Shallow Understanding

This new productivity does not guarantee understanding. It’s entirely possible to produce high-quality content with only a superficial grasp of the material. This has become increasingly common.

Imagine being assigned to write an article or deliver a presentation on a topic you've never studied. With AI, you can generate an informative-sounding piece despite having barely scratched the surface of the material. In a professional setting, this ability may help meet deadlines. However, over time, this habit erodes the intellectual rigor that once accompanied such tasks.

We are witnessing a culture that prioritizes “doing” over “knowing.” While this enhances short-term output, it can diminish our long-term intellectual capital.

Learning: Faster, But Possibly Shallower

AI has indeed accelerated the learning process for those eager to learn. It can consolidate and present relevant information faster than traditional methods. Motivated learners can now absorb and synthesize knowledge at unprecedented speeds.

However, for those more focused on simply completing tasks or reaching goals, AI offers shortcuts. In the past, achieving results required deep engagement and “learning by doing.” Today, that learning aspect is often overlooked. Tasks can be executed with minimal subject mastery and surface-level input.

This trend may gradually erode foundational knowledge across various fields, leading individuals to become more task-oriented and less interested in understanding the underlying reasons for their work.

When AI Becomes the Source and the Student

Another concern arises when AI not only delivers information but also learns from itself. If human users stop consulting original texts or primary data and rely solely on AI-generated summaries, AI begins to feed off its own interpretations. This creates a feedback loop where flawed outputs may become the new training data.

If misinformation or false assumptions enter this loop, and millions of users act on that content without verifying sources, the spread of false knowledge becomes faster and more efficient.

"If there’s misinformation that’s been fed into AI, and every other person is learning based on that misinformation, then the process of learning the wrong information is much faster because people are not necessarily referring to the original texts that inform the subject."

This situation raises an urgent question. What happens when the primary source of knowledge lacks an external benchmark? When AI references itself, who checks the facts?

The Death of “Learning by Doing”?

Traditionally, people gained knowledge through the process of trying, failing, iterating, and finally succeeding. Tasks like building websites, writing reports, or analyzing datasets taught us invaluable lessons.

Now, many of these tasks can be automated or semi-automated. AI can write code, perform analysis, and edit text. The human's role becomes more of a project manager than a practitioner.

As a result, people are reaching their goals without experiencing the full learning curve. While this may save time, it flattens the experience and limits deep expertise development.

A Shift in Intellectual Growth?

All these factors lead to a compelling thought: while AI boosts short-term efficiency, it may slow long-term intellectual growth.

As we rely more on AI, the rate at which people truly become knowledgeable might decline. Over time, we could see a growing divide between those who develop genuine expertise and those who merely know how to leverage AI to simulate it. The concern is not merely about people becoming “dumber” in the literal sense; rather, it’s about a potential erosion in our collective depth of understanding.

In a world that increasingly rewards quick answers over thoughtful reflection, this erosion could have far-reaching consequences.

Final Thoughts: Rethinking the Question

Perhaps it’s time to reframe the original question. It’s not simply about whether we are becoming “dumber” or “more efficient.” Clearly, AI enhances our efficiency. The more pressing question is:

Are We Trading Depth for Speed, and If So, At What Cost?

AI is a tool. It can accelerate both learning and ignorance. Ultimately, it is up to us to choose which path we want to pursue.

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Artificial Intelligence's role in today's world has increased our reliance on technology, but it also challenges our understanding and intellectual engagement.