Q&A: The “collision” between AI, your brain, and society

MIT Sloan professor Eric So argues that leaning too heavily on artificial intelligence can erode people's ability to think, in a new W.W. Norton book titled "The Collision: What AI Does to Us." In an interview with MIT News published October 15, 2026, So said the project grew from noticing the habit in himself, after he gave ChatGPT half a sentence to finish a reply to a colleague, and in students using AI on homework meant to build mastery.

So, who acknowledges that AI speeds up work and can make useful specialized tools, warns of cognitive atrophy. MIT News says he draws on research from academia and industry, including an Anthropic study finding that about half of college students' queries were low-effort requests for simple answers. He describes "AI gravity," a pull created by the instinct to conserve mental energy, competitive pressure, difficulty detecting AI use, and employers that now tie bonuses and promotions to adoption. He also says models are both sycophantic and persuasive, which he believes can weaken human relationships.

His remedy centers on four personal principles: embrace struggle, value who you are without AI, reinvest the time AI saves in growth rather than more of the same work, and use AI as a tutor instead of an answer machine. He compares the needed shift to how people took up intentional exercise once industrialization made physical exertion less necessary for earning a living. The argument matters, he suggests, because dependence can become self-fulfilling as people lose the abilities they hoped to develop.