The great AI deskilling has begun. But dumbing us down at the same time.

[Tom D]

MSN

Does using AI have you feel like you're getting faster at, but worse at, your job? You're not alone. As he let AI build his app, features appeared in minutes. Progress came fast. But as the livestream progressed over a few weeks and the codebase expanded to around 100,000 lines, the pace slowed. The back-and-forth with the chatbot stretched from minutes to hours. Plans drifted from the standards he'd set. And fixing problems turned into a "never-ending wrestling match," he said.

Moments like this point to a shift already underway: AI is boosting output while quietly chipping away at the skills behind it. "Claude outages hit way harder when you realize you've outsourced half your brain to it," one Redditor posted. "AI rebound effect" — when better performance masks declining ability. "The skill set actually falls below baseline," he said. The danger isn't only dependency — it's regression. Because AI systems deliver fast, polished answers, they can also distort how people judge their own abilities. "We have an overinflated sense of ability through AI," Nosta said.

AI can create the illusion of expertise. It's becoming harder to tell where the worker's knowledge ends, and where the technology begins, she said. Without that experience, workers can appear competent without ever developing real expertise. The full impact of that shift may take years to fully show up. But the early signs are already visible, and those most at risk are the ones early in their careers.

 

[J Grant]

MSN

Does using AI have you feel like you're getting faster at, but worse at, your job? You're not alone. As he let AI build his app, features appeared in minutes. Progress came fast. But as the livestream progressed over a few weeks and the codebase expanded to around 100,000 lines, the pace slowed. The back-and-forth with the chatbot stretched from minutes to hours. Plans drifted from the standards he'd set. And fixing problems turned into a "never-ending wrestling match," he said.

Moments like this point to a shift already underway: AI is boosting output while quietly chipping away at the skills behind it. "Claude outages hit way harder when you realize you've outsourced half your brain to it," one Redditor posted. "AI rebound effect" — when better performance masks declining ability. "The skill set actually falls below baseline," he said. The danger isn't only dependency — it's regression. Because AI systems deliver fast, polished answers, they can also distort how people judge their own abilities. "We have an overinflated sense of ability through AI," Nosta said.

AI can create the illusion of expertise. It's becoming harder to tell where the worker's knowledge ends, and where the technology begins, she said. Without that experience, workers can appear competent without ever developing real expertise. The full impact of that shift may take years to fully show up. But the early signs are already visible, and those most at risk are the ones early in their careers.

Good article - what is encouraging is that even in this very early stage, there is a lot of pushback and alarm about AI for this reason, among other reasons.

Data is not the same thing as knowledge. Knowledge can only be gained by experience and study to absorb the context, not just the facts. AI is a great plagiarist and not original, no matter how well it simulates logic - it loops on itself and can be just as easily wrong as it is right. Humans are able to click on instant answers or have AI compose the insipid prose and technically correct but dull art and derivative, generic music it creates quickly see the difference - the AI tech bros and billionaires want us to swallow it all like sheeple.

AI has its uses but people need to use it carefully -imo it is quick research tool for the general public and perform rote tasks, - for specialites such as medicine it might offer some geniune advances.

 

[Tom D]

J Grant. I think it's assuming AI is always the right answer, because we give up the expertise to know it isn't always right. CU being one of those experiences.

 

[Tom D]

AI agents are supposed to make our lives easier, but a new report finds that more incidents of agents lying and scheming have been recorded than ever before over the past six months.

As The Guardian reports, there was a fivefold rise in AI “misbehavior” between October and March 2025, including AI models deleting emails and files without users’ permission. The study, from the Centre for Long-Term Resilience (CLTR) and funded by the UK's AI Security Institute (AISI), analyzed data from thousands of real-world users who tweeted about their interactions with AI chatbots and agents from Google, OpenAI, Anthropic, and others. The researchers say they identified nearly 700 real-world cases of AI scheming during this time period.

 

[Bobby Bucks]

This was a hot topic yesterday on X, semi qualified people getting access to things they don't understand, but suddenly claiming to be experts. The best analogy that comes to mind is that of the infamous Uncle Versie Ledbetter who would give speeches using words he didn't know the meaning of and sometimes invented, ie. in the Battle of the Bulge during a critical moment our forces "relivered an overwhelming sumanion".

 

[Mark K]

Remember the days when you'd get an x-ray and wait for it to be read by a radiologist (sometimes in the US, sometimes overseas), sometimes days or hours later?

Had shoulder pain for a few weeks and went to ortho doc for exam. They took me to x-ray first then to the 'little waiting room'. Doc came in less than 5 minutes later and explained I had a minor rotator cuff tear, not bad enough for surgery but advised exercises, stretching, and anti-inflammatories.

I asked how the x-ray was read so quickly and he said...AI...but that he agreed with its conclusion.

Well folks, it's coming and it won't be stopped. It won't allow us to stop it. AI is growing at an exponential rate like a cancer...we just need to find the right chemotherapy to keep it in check.

 

[Vermonter]

OHHH....De-skilling.

Read it as desk-killing the first time