What if AI starts thinking for you?

By Zig Tashi

(BigThink essay adapted)

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From Homo sapiens to prompt‑tweakers

Billions are being poured into AI development—arguably the next trillion‑dollar frontier. We marvel at smart assistants that summarise, suggest, code, compose. But as Brendan McCord warns, this is more than convenience; it's a temptation to outsource our thinking entirely. "You are going to be tempted in ways…to outsource your thinking. And you're gonna have to resist that."   

An apt twist on Socrates' famous quote," An unexamined life is not worth living."

Pause and consider what's at stake: our minds—the essence of autonomy.

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Humboldt's 19th‑Century warning

Two centuries ago, German polymath Wilhelm von Humboldt believed true human flourishing depended on being self‑directed. He famously declared:

"Whatever does not spring from a man's free choice…remains alien to his true nature…he performs it…with mechanical exactness…we may admire what he does, but we despise what he is."   

"How a person masters his fate is more important than what his fate is."

In context: the labourer who tends a garden with love is its true owner, while the idle sophist who merely tastes its fruits is not. Humboldt insisted that freedom of mind isn't a luxury—it's essential to the formation of character, intellect, and genuine pleasure.  

He continued:

"As soon as one stops searching for knowledge…everything is irrevocably and forever lost."  

This could well be a caution against using AI to replace, rather than challenge, our inner striving.

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AI: tool or mental crutch? Should we worry

BigThink doesn't argue against AI. It argues for vigilance. Because when tools become too helpful, they can become crutches. And over time, crutches weaken muscles—mental ones included.

Key risks:

• Mental Atrophy: Like unused muscles, cognitive abilities fade and atrophy when not exercised. Critical thinking, reasoning, imagination, and even moral judgement—none are immune.

• Passive Mindset: If AI begins to anticipate what you want, it can lull you into a state of mental passivity. You don't have to decide what to read, explore, or ask—AI does it for you.

• Loss of Inner Voice: Philosophers have long said that thinking is the act of conversing with oneself. What happens when that conversation is constantly interrupted—or outright replaced—by an external voice?

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Reclaiming the inner path

Humboldt's remedy is self‑directed action and intellectual effort. He believed mastery matters more than outcome: "How a person masters his fate is more important than what his fate is."   

Translated to today, it means:

1. Be intentional: pause before prompting AI—ask, Do I need this?

2. Exercise effort: draft your ideas without AI first. Reflect deeply—no autopilot.

3. Augment, don't replace: use AI for feedback or expansion, not ideation from scratch.

4. Deign for agency: technological tools should reinforce—not pre‑empt—mental initiative.

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Why it matters now

We stand at a crossroads: abandon Humboldt's vision and risk hollowing out our souls, or embrace it anew, with AI as a partner rather than surrogate. Just as mechanisation prompted concerns in Humboldt's time, AI now challenges our creative and intellectual independence. The philosopher-builder that McCord advocates can ensure technology contributes to human autonomy, not erodes it.  

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Final word

In Humboldt's words:

"Results are nothing; the energies which produce them…and which again spring from them are everything."  

Your thinking matters—not just its output. Let's live lives shaped by free choice, not mechanical convenience.

Bottom line:

AI can amplify human thought—but only if we think first, then use it. Otherwise, we hand over our very selves.

Happy AI-ing.