Terence Tao: AI will do to our brains what cheap food did to our bodies
JosephJacks_ · x · 2026-10-30
Mathematician Terence Tao argues thinking is the next thing people must deliberately exercise: after cheap food forced conscious dieting, AI may force conscious "mental diet and exercise."
He cites an MIT study where 83% of students using ChatGPT for essays couldn't quote a single sentence they'd "written" minutes later, while those who wrote first and used ChatGPT after performed better with increased brain activity. The struggle before the answer is what the brain retains; unearned answers are easy to get and easier to forget.
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