how to use chatGPT without rotting your brain
AI isn’t making us dumber—bad AI habits are.
A few weeks ago, I received a LinkedIn message from a college student. It was long. Like, way too long.
He introduced himself, shared his academic background, and said he admired my career path and hoped to follow in my footsteps. Then came the ask—he was interested in applying to an MBA program and wanted to know if I could share insights on how to strengthen his application.
The request itself wasn’t unusual. But the way it was written felt... off.
The message had that unmistakable ChatGPT shine. Overly polished, generic phrasing, and a word count that screamed "I copy-pasted this and hoped for the best." It didn’t make me think he was lazy, necessarily, but it did make me wonder. Could he write an email himself if he had to?
This moment hit especially hard because I’ve been there.
I use AI to support my writing, primarily for proofreading, and I’ve noticed something interesting. The more I use it for mundane tasks, the less confident I feel in doing them myself. My emails take longer to write. My sentences don’t come out as smoothly. And when I use AI to “refine” my ideas, I sometimes start doubting if my original thoughts were even worth refining in the first place.
So, is AI actually making us dumber?
AI Is Not a Shortcut. It’s a Skill Set.
The internet is full of hacks on how to use generative AI to 10x your productivity. Entrepreneurs and content creators especially swear by it. They say you can write more, faster, and better than ever before. The promise? Use AI well, and nobody will even know the difference.
But here’s the thing. Most people can tell.
Whether it’s an overly verbose networking message or a blog post that feels oddly soulless, AI-generated content is often just off. The bigger issue, though, isn’t that AI lacks authenticity. It’s that we do when we don’t know how to use it well.
I interviewed Winston Roberts, an AI education strategist, and he pointed out something that completely changed the way I think about this.
Winston is deeply passionate about getting AI tools into students’ hands. After watching his documentary with the Walton Family Foundation, I could see why. His work is rooted in a fundamental reality. Technology is only an advantage if you know how to use it.
His parents grew up in Flint, Michigan, where the automotive industry was once a cornerstone of the economy. Their sixth-grade teacher predicted that automation would fundamentally erase the path to the middle class, and she was correct. Over the years, automation and technological advancements significantly reduced the need for manual labor, leading to widespread layoffs and economic challenges in the region.
Now, Winston, who works to integrate AI into classrooms, is seeing a similar shift in education. The latest struggle for the upcoming generation is the intense competition to get into prestigious institutions—both colleges and companies. Students, often from affluent areas, are leveraging AI to widen the already-large performance gap for admission to these esteemed institutions.
“People worry that using AI is ‘cheating,’ but in reality, AI isn’t replacing people. It’s replacing the people who don’t know how to use it.”
This is exactly what’s happening in high-stakes admissions and recruiting. The students who understand how to use AI strategically—whether for writing compelling application essays, acing standardized test prep, or crafting polished resumes—are outpacing their peers who don’t. It’s not just about intelligence or effort anymore. It’s about who has access to the right tools and knows how to use them effectively.
Is AI Making Us Dumber? It Depends on How You Use It.
AI isn’t making people worse at thinking, but it is shifting what “thinking” looks like.
"There was a time when, to get light, you had to learn how to pick the right sticks, strike flint against steel, and carefully build a fire. Now? You just flip a light switch."
Nobody is complaining that we’ve lost the skill of making fire by hand. We just use that saved time to do bigger things. AI works the same way. It’s not about whether we should outsource tasks, but about what we choose to outsource.
Master AI Before It Masters You
In a recent episode of The AI Report podcast, Ruben Hassid, who has amassed over 450,000 followers on LinkedIn by leveraging AI strategies, emphasizes the urgency of mastering AI. The people who learn how to use it effectively will replace those who don’t.
The idea that AI is making us "worse" at certain skills only applies if you’re using it as a passive replacement instead of an active tool. Ruben compares it to photography. A camera can take a thousand pictures in an instant, but human taste and experience are what make a great photographer. The same applies to AI.
If you blindly accept AI’s first response, you’re letting it do the thinking for you. But if you’re tweaking prompts, refining outputs, and applying your own judgment, AI becomes an amplifier, not a crutch.
AI isn’t going to erase the need for professionals. It will erase the need for professionals who refuse to learn how to use it.
How to Use AI Without Losing Your Edge
So, how do you actually use AI well? Winston shared a few tactical tips:
Use AI as a creative thought partner, not a crutch.
Instead of having AI write your email from scratch, use it to suggest multiple versions and analyze which one best fits your intent.
Instead of asking AI to summarize a topic, have it argue against your point to challenge your assumptions.
Give AI tools more context.
Bad prompt: “Write a cover letter for this job.”
Good prompt: “Here’s my resume, a past cover letter, and the job description. Write a compelling cover letter in my voice, highlighting why I’d be a great fit.”
Understand which tools to use for what.
Google NotebookLM – A powerful tool that allows you to upload large amounts of information, including Google Docs, PDFs, and YouTube links, and have AI synthesize it into key insights. It even offers an audio overview feature, where AI-generated hosts discuss your content like a podcast, making it easier to digest complex information on the go.
Perplexity – An AI-powered research assistant designed to provide more accurate sourcing and citation compared to ChatGPT. Unlike traditional search engines, Perplexity delivers concise, research-backed answers while linking to credible sources, making it ideal for fact-checking, deep research, and content validation.
AI Agents – Unlike chat-based AI tools, AI agents are task-specific and designed to automate complex workflows. For example, an AI agent can be trained to manage your emails, draft reports, summarize meetings, or even analyze market trends without needing constant supervision.
Coming Full Circle. The AI-Generated LinkedIn Request.
Let’s go back to the LinkedIn message from the college student.
The issue wasn’t that he used AI. It was how he used it.
If he had uploaded past emails he’d written then refined ChatGPT’s draft, I probably wouldn’t have noticed it was AI-assisted at all.
That’s the real takeaway here. AI is a tool. Whether it makes us smarter or dulls our skills depends entirely on how we use it.
“AI won’t replace you. But the person who knows how to use AI will.” — Winston Roberts
So, the real question is. Are you using AI to enhance your thinking or to escape it?
The game has already started. The only question is, are you playing it the right way?