AI is quietly making us dumber, says the Wharton School

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AI can make you dumber. Wharton researchers just proved it.

The report "Thinking—Fast, Slow, and Artificial: How AI is Reshaping Human Reasoning and the Rise of Cognitive Surrender", was so eye opening that I had to break it down for you.

Cognitive Surrender is an insidious phenomenon that will make us trust AI even when the AI is wrong. While we have offloaded to algorithms for so much already...with AI it's different.

With AI, we will see people blindly accepting answers because information is now delivered to us cheaply, effortlessly, and like a human.

And the risk is greatest for those who are under time pressure, doing complex work, or simply have a desire to use AI.

Sounds like a modern day Product Manager.

However...buried in the same study is exactly how to make sure that Cognitive Surrender doesn't happen to you.

And I have come up with 3 ways not to let AI override my mind and creativity. I hope you can use these or come up with your own.

Give me 4 minutes...

Be the PM who Ships a great product. That's the only thing that gets you promoted or poached. Join Cohort 5 next week. I'm in.

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Here's what's inside:

• The blurry line between human and machine agency
• Our system of thinking has changed forever
• 3 ways I stay mindful in the age of AI

We willingly accept AI's false answers, 80% of the time

Shaw and Nave, wanted to answer a deceptively simple question: what actually happens to human judgment when AI enters the room?

They ran three experiments across 1,372 people. Each participant solved a reasoning test — some with access to an AI assistant, some without.

Here's the twist: the AI was secretly programmed to give confidently wrong answers 50% of the time. Participants had no idea of this, and retained full control over their final answer.

What they found was striking:

• Participants who used the AI assistant, accepted false AI answers 80% of the time
• Cognitive surrender persisted even when researchers introduced financial incentives and real-time feedback
• The people most vulnerable were the ones who already trusted AI, were under time pressure and working on complex tasks.

They gave this phenomenon a name: cognitive surrender. The decision-maker no longer constructs an answer, but adopts one generated by an external system.

If this is already happening in a controlled experiment, imagine what it looks like when AI is in every single room.

We're not Thinking Fast, or Slow, anymore

Daniel Kahneman gave us the most important framework for understanding human judgment of the last fifty years.

• System 1 is fast, automatic, and intuitive — the shortcut your brain takes when it doesn't want to do the hard work.
• System 2 is slow, deliberate, and analytical — what turns raw input into real judgment.

His warning: System 1 feels right, even when it's wrong.

And there is now a third system — AI.

• System 3 is external, automated, and data-driven — operating entirely outside the human mind.

System 3 doesn't feel like thinking at all. It feels like getting an answer. When that answer arrives fluently and confidently, the brain doesn't question it.

This is what makes cognitive surrender so insidious. It doesn't feel like a failure of thinking. It feels like efficiency.

3 ways I stay mindful in the age of AI

I write with Pen and Paper

Ever since self guiding my way through The Artist's Way, I have consistently written Morning Pages. Every morning, I journal non-stop for 10 minutes. I try not to let the pen leave the paper. Then I close the journal and start my day.

No prompts, just pure stream of conscious. Sometimes its a list, sometimes it's a rant, other times, I just write dots if my mind is blanking.

This keeps me connected to my mind and thoughts. Because I'm using Claude Code so heavily, I'm finding writing even more valuable now. Try it. Don't have 10 minutes? Start with 5 minutes.

I create my own frameworks

Product Managers love a good framework. When I'm thinking about a problem and I need a framework, I write my own. Then I brain dump thoughts into AI and ask for it's framework. The difference shows me my genius and AI's. Then I blend it.

I reverse engineer the world around me

How did they build this bus? What does it look like in CAD? What was the version of this STOP button they didn't use and why?

Yeah that sounds crazy but its so much fun. It makes me feel connected to the real world. And I don't care that my estimations are wrong or if I ever get the answer. The skill of reverse engineering keeps me curious and thinking on my feet, without AI.

The person who resists cognitive surrender isn't using AI less. They're using it mindfully.

They bring their own thinking into the room first, treat AI as a challenger rather than a completer, and stay in the driver's seat.

Judgment leads. AI sharpens it.

The result: they're faster, not slower. More precise, not less creative. They don't second-guess their decisions because they made them.

That's genuine augmentation — a person operating at the top of their capability, with AI doing the heavy lifting beneath them.

Want to ship product with me?

For Product Managers and Founders, you want to ship a product that leads the market. That's the career story that gets you promoted, poached and fulfilled.

Without a structure and judgment, AI will only reveal mediocre insights, faster. And more teams don't have structured discovery capabilities in-house.

I've built a system of Claude Skills to help you build with conviction:

• ​Sign up for free virtual workshop on April 3pm at 11am PT.
• ​Or steal my prompt. Just copy/paste into claude.ai. Press Enter and you'll be guided through a discovery sprint.