A lot of people are afraid of AI, its consequences to the job market, and how it makes people lazy by removing any friction whatsoever.

But the truth is, LLMs only do what you tell them to do: you can use them to help you get closer to your dream life or to decline.

The whole difference lies (and it's not a cliché) in your intentions and motivation.

How to get dumber with AI :

- ask random questions without trying to improve your prompt

- wait for AI to answer and not even read the answer completely

- let LLMs tell you that you are the smartest

In short, don't change anything and just use LLMs as they are packaged by default.

Now let's see how to get smarter with AI :

Make AI a Challenger, not a Confidant.

Science has demonstrated repeatedly that efficient learning is supposed to be challenging.

The least you can do to improve your learning with AI is to improve your prompt so that it challenges you instead of reassuring you.

Build Systems that Spare You the Chores.

Every learning process contains both useful and useless friction.

Useful friction is the one that really trains you: exercises, quizzes, writing, practice.

Useless friction is all the rest: preparing your own course material, creating flashcards and formatting review sheets, you name it.

You must use AI to do the second part and keep the first one for yourself.

Learn about the learning capabilities of AI.

Every day brings new AI features, so don't use them the same way you used ChatGPT when it launched in 2021.

When you do just a little bit of research, you'll find tons of great ways to learn with LLMs: Claude learning mode, ChatGPT study mode, NotebookLM... just do your homework and find the features you need.

In summary :

AI can either hold you back or propel you forward—it depends on your approach.

Make AI your challenger, not your comfort zone. Focus on learning tasks that push you and use AI to handle the mundane chores.

Stay up to date on new AI tools and features to enhance your learning. Don’t rely on AI as a crutch; use it to boost your skills. Stay intentional and curious.