The Hidden Cost of AI

Just because a task can be automated by AI doesn’t always mean it should be. By outsourcing our effort, we risk losing more than we gain. Certain types of work, and the very struggle that comes with them, are essential for developing and maintaining the critical skills we need to truly understand the world.

Think about the “old-school” process of in-depth research. It could be for a bachelor’s thesis, a strategic business report, or preparing a deep-dive article. The process forces us to become temporary experts:

• we study multiple sources
• we compare conflicting information
• and we synthesize a conclusion we can explain and defend

This “training” builds crucial abilities: the deep focus required to read and process long texts, the mental stamina to hold context across different sources, and the critical thinking needed to formulate hypotheses.

Now, what happens if we outsource this entire process? We enter a prompt and, in seconds, receive a summary to pass along. In that moment, what is our real contribution? What skill have we sharpened? What experience have we gained? Does that work even hold meaning for us anymore? Ultimately, a role that merely delegates and forwards AI output is easily replaceable by a simple automation script.

This isn’t a call to abandon AI. It’s a call for deliberate application. The challenge now isn’t the blind automation of everything possible, but the wisdom to recognize which struggles are essential for our own growth.

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It’s about using AI with thought and consideration, augmenting our intellect instead of replacing it, and not resigning from the valuable “work” that truly makes us capable.