I have a different opinion than most of my friends on this topic. They claim that it's just like the calculator, everyone said that if we offset our math work on a calculator it will make us all dumb. So logically the same applies for AI, but it just feels different to me.

LLMs are not perfect, but they can do a lot of the boring work, but this removes any ability for critical thinking, research, honestly English.

Which is why I think this issue is different, especially for students. Think about it if someone was writing a paper and used AI to adjust their writing, they still had to critically think about their stance, the argument behind it but most people use it like, "I have a problem, solve problem", completely skipping all mental strain from the problem.

I know I'm not an expert, so I try not to shake my fist at the clouds, but this is honestly worrying to me.

By having more targeted results than Google or Stack Overflow AI is reducing my stupidity in the “lack of knowledge” sense (not knowing about a given function; library; feature).

Regarding critical thinking: the article hedges “In Dr Gerlich’s study, for example, it is possible that people with greater critical-thinking prowess are just less likely to lean on ai” and I think this all just remains to be seen, and will hit different age groups and people at different life stages in different ways.