How to Protect Your Brain in the Age of AI

AI is transforming our lives at an unprecedented pace, but it carries a hidden risk few discuss. I call it AI Brain: the gradual dulling of your cognitive, emotional, and creative abilities as you hand more thinking, deciding, and interpreting over to machines.

AI Brain isn’t about intelligence—it’s about sharpness. It weakens the subtle mental connections that make you unique, slowly flattening a rich, colorful experience into a grayscale routine. When you outsource the struggle and effort that shape your thinking, you lose more than time—you lose mental vitality.

Research supports this concern. A preliminary MIT Media Lab study, Your Brain on ChatGPT, found that people who relied on AI showed weaker memory recall, lower neural engagement, and less ownership of their own writing compared to those who worked without AI.

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Why Rejecting AI Isn’t the Answer

Avoiding AI entirely isn’t practical or wise. AI is a powerful tool that can amplify what you can do, remove unnecessary friction, and create real leverage. The real risk arises when efficiency becomes the only goal and you hand over everything that matters.

Thriving in an AI-driven world isn’t about doing more with AI. It’s about deciding what you refuse to outsource. Your future won’t be defined by what AI does for you, but by what you insist on doing yourself.

Embrace First-Pass Thinking

First-pass thinking is difficult. It’s messy, cognitively demanding, and full of false starts—but it’s also where originality is born. AI makes it tempting to skip this stage, saving time at the cost of sharpness.

To protect your first-pass thinking:

• Think before you prompt: Clarify your perspective before asking AI for help.
• Write before you refine: Draft your ideas yourself first, even if they’re imperfect.
• Decide before you optimize: Form your initial judgement alone, then use AI to refine it.

This process helps maintain your originality in a world moving toward sameness.

Preserve Cognitive Friction

Cognitive friction is the mental resistance you feel when tackling tough problems. It’s the strain of holding multiple ideas, sitting with uncertainty, and thinking deeply. Although uncomfortable, it’s essential for growth.

Ways to preserve cognitive friction:

• Allow boredom: Don’t rush to fill idle moments with distractions.
• Seek solitude: Spend time alone with your thoughts through walks, reflection, or quiet time.
• Sit with problems: Resist solving everything immediately.
• Slow down: Take your time with writing, brainstorming, and decisions.

Think of friction not as a problem but as a gym for your brain.

Do Less, But Deeper

AI makes starting new projects cheap and easy, but trying to do everything leads to shallow results. True mastery comes from depth, not breadth. As Bruce Lee said:

“I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times.”

To embrace depth:

• Identify 2–3 core priorities and focus intensely.
• Say no to distractions or good ideas that don’t fit your main work.
• Measure success by quality, not quantity.

Depth remains one of the last areas where human effort truly matters.

Do More Human Things

As AI takes over more tasks, the uniquely human aspects of life—empathy, presence, effort, and relationships—become even more valuable. You cannot outsource them, and they grow through real-world experiences.

To stay grounded:

• Prioritize in-person interactions: Engage in real conversations, maintain eye contact, and share experiences.
• Push your body: Physical effort builds resilience and tolerance for uncertainty.
• Invest in activities that don’t scale: Participate in retreats, challenges, or other experiences that require effort and presence.

In a world optimized for efficiency, staying anchored in what makes you human is the ultimate safeguard.

Take Charge of Your Mind

AI will continue to advance, but what happens to your brain doesn’t have to be passive. AI Brain isn’t caused by technology itself—it emerges when you blur the line between what should and shouldn’t be outsourced.