Outsourcing Our Brains to AI

By: Dr. David Friedman

I recently saw a well-known influencer post: "To make a living, I rely on Me, Myself and A.I."

That sentence should bring great concern to us all! We live in an age where those who shape public opinion, whose very job is to create content to guide our thoughts, values, and choices, have quietly handed their voice over to artificial intelligence. These “influencers” that we trust to direct our decisions are no longer making any of their own. 

For eight years, I've shared photos from my garden and food-related posts in my Facebook group Food Sanity Forum. Last week, I posted a picture of a double-yolk egg I discovered while making breakfast. This natural occurrence is more common in certain chicken breeds. The responses from my loyal followers stunned me: "Is this real, or AI-generated?"

I guess I can't blame them for the skepticism. We're drowning in a digital ocean of deception where photoshopped perfection masquerades as reality and AI-generated content tugs at our heartstrings with fabricated emotion. Clickbait headlines prey on our deepest vulnerabilities, every image feels suspect, and narratives now seem manufactured. The very foundations of authenticity have crumbled beneath our feet.

Recently, The Today Show shared a viral heart-filled story about a father with Down syndrome raising his son against all odds. It’s currently reached a staggering 180 million views and climbing. But the story was completely fake. It was created by a couple from Los Angeles using ChatGPT, who boasted they regularly create fake stories that generate over 1.5 billion views per month! This deception has become their primary source of income. With 90% of ALL social media content predicted to be AI-generated by 2026, we're racing toward a world where nothing can be trusted as genuine. Yet beneath this surface chaos lurks something far more sinister: the systematic erosion of human intellect itself. We are witnessing the quiet surrender of our most precious faculty, the ability to think, create, and articulate our own truths. In classrooms and boardrooms, in research halls and literary circles, the human mind is being outsourced to algorithms. Students submit essays they've never written, and authors publish books they've not conceived. Scholars defend dissertations born not from years of contemplation, but from moments of mechanical generation.

I spent over six years crafting my book Food Sanity and four more years nurturing its upcoming successor. Sleepless nights researching and wrestling with ideas and countless revisions born from genuine struggle. The slow, beautiful alchemy of transforming raw, meaningful thought went into each page.  Now I watch in dismay as artificial intelligence reduces this sacred creative process to mere productivity metrics, accomplishing in minutes what took me years of authentic human struggle.

The devastation extends beyond writing. I have a patient who's a brilliant graphic designer. I've used his work for years, from my business logo to the covers of my books. Recently, he told me he's retiring. Not because he's lost his talent, but because he can no longer compete with free AI options that spit out designs in seconds while his thoughtful creations take days to perfect.

The Rise in Leaders Who Can't Think

We're entering a generation that confuses prompting ChatGPT with genuine thinking. These individuals, armed with artificial eloquence yet lacking real insight, will soon become our leaders, teachers, doctors, and judges. They'll make decisions about your life, your children's future, and our society's direction. And they'll do it all without ever having grappled with real problem-solving or authentic thinking. These future leaders will govern societies and shape minds, yet have never truly engaged with their own. The real danger isn't just using machines to write our letters, create our books, or cut corners at work; it's the erosion of human creativity. It's surrendering the very thing that makes us human: our ability to tackle challenging situations and make sense of our complex world.

A recent study from MIT's Media Lab reveals concerning effects of AI usage on the human brain. Researchers observed memory decline and reduced cognitive performance among participants who used AI writing tools, such as ChatGPT. Through EEG monitoring of brain activity, scientists detected significant decreases in memory retention and diminished cognitive skills, particularly in brain regions responsible for critical thinking and decision-making. While AI tools may enhance writing efficiency, these findings suggest they may come at the cost of our natural cognitive processes.

Guinness World Records lists the highest recorded human IQ as 228. Artificial Intelligence is already approaching the equivalent of an IQ of 500,000, and that’s predicted to exceed one million within the next year. Sam Altman, CEO of ChatGPT, recently launched version 5, stating it as being on par with a "PhD-level expert." AI is surpassing the world’s brightest physicist, computer programmer, doctor, scientist, inventor, and entrepreneur in history.   Even Hollywood will become obsolete. A company called Showrunner now offers an app called "Fable" that enables anyone to create movies using AI technology. Upload a photo, and you can even star in your own film or become a supporting actor in an existing movie. Everyone can be a filmmaker now, without having to act, write, direct, or create anything authentic. This technology, known as the “AI of Netflix,” will soon render your favorite movie streaming service obsolete.  

I follow a prominent author and health advocate on social media who's also been a guest on my podcast, To Your Good Health Radio. Her unique viewpoints and outside-the-box thinking have always impressed me. However, she now quotes ChatGPT in her posts, as if she needs artificial validation for her own ideas. One recent post boasted, "See, even ChatGPT agrees!" complete with screenshots of her AI conversation. As if her longtime followers, who've always respected her genuine insights, suddenly need her authentic views rubber-stamped by a machine.

The Godfather's Final Warning

Geoffrey Hinton didn't just create AI; he unleashed it. Now the "Godfather of Artificial Intelligence" is sounding the alarm about his own creation: "The rapid rise in AI comes with massive risks. In the near future, this technology may be used to create terrible new viruses and lethal weapons that decide by themselves who to kill or maim."

Remember The Terminator? The idea of machines turning against humanity was a staple of brilliant Hollywood science fiction. Not anymore. Hinton, the man who taught machines to think, is now sounding the alarm on this demise. He walked away from millions of dollars at Google for the moral freedom to warn us. When the creator becomes the prophet of their own apocalypse, we've passed progress; we've entered survival mode.

The Choice That Will Define Humanity

We stand at the most pivotal moment in human history. This isn't about convenience or productivity anymore; it's about the future of mankind!  Will we reclaim the complex, wonderfully imperfect, gloriously human work of authentic thinking? Or will we surrender our consciousness and become curators of artificial thoughts, sophisticated parrots merely echoing the voices of machines? When we forfeit our capacity for genuine thought, we not only lose our ability to discern truth, but we also lose our souls.

That influencer's declaration haunts me: "To make a living, I rely on Me, Myself and A.I."

But here's the question that should terrify every parent, every teacher, every human being alive:

What happens when A.I. decides it no longer needs "Me" and "Myself"?

 The creator of AI has already given us his answer. He quit his job to warn us.

The question isn't whether we should listen; it’s whether we still have time.

Your children are counting on you to choose wisely. Let’s pick Team Human, not Machine.