'Cognitive Surrender' Is a New and Useful Term for How AI Melts Brains (Gizmodo, 4/5)

[highplainsdem]

https://gizmodo.com/cognitive-surrender-is-a-new-and-useful-term-for-how-ai-melts-brains-2000742595

Kyle Orland of ArsTechnica wrote a blog post about the term “cognitive surrender” on April 3. Maybe I should have noticed it sooner since it’s been floating around since at least January, when it was, it appears, coined in this context by the Wharton Business School marketing researchers Steven Shaw and Gideon Nave. Their paper is incredibly troubling, and once you read about these findings, the term “cognitive surrender” will be stuck in your head too.

What Shaw and Nave did was give 1,372 people a test, and access to an AI chatbot for help—with the twist that the chatbot sometimes gave wrong answers. The test was an “adapted” version of something called a Cognitive Reflection Test, meaning every question was a certain type of brain-buster you’ve seen before:

-snip-

At any rate, in the part of the study where the subjects were allowed to consult the chatbot, they did so about half the time. When it gave correct answers, they accepted them 93 percent of the time. Unfortunately, when it was wrong, they accepted answers 80 percent of the time. And keep in mind, they didn’t have to use it at all. They let the bad advice trump their own brains. Even worse, those who used AI rated their confidence 11.7 percent higher than those who didn’t, even though it was wrong.

-snip-

This isn’t the first time the phrase cognitive surrender has existed. The theologian Peter Berger used it in a religious context in the 1990s, but it meant something more like surrendering faith in God to relieve cognitive dissonance. And if you’re like me, you’ve probably noticed that AI-assisted cognitive surrender looks like older forms of mental laziness.

-snip-

Found that on Bluesky, in a message from Gizmodo posted an hour ago, when I checked the platform again. But I'd mentioned a similar problem with AI interfering with people's judgment in a reply earlier today about radiologists and AI, in this thread in LBN:

https://www.democraticunderground.com/10143644307

In reply 31 there, I'd quoted a Forbes article from several weeks ago:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/jessepines/2026/02/23/will-ai-de-skill-doctors-evidence-is-starting-to-trickle-in/

A study found that radiologist’s ability to catch AI-generated errors in mammograms correlated strongly with experience. In a simulated scenario where an AI system provided an incorrect suggestion, the rates of correctly read mammograms was 20% for inexperienced radiologists, 25% for the moderately experienced and 46% for the very experienced.

This raises the specter of what is called “never-skilling.” If medical trainees rely on AI-generated differentials before wrestling with clinical ambiguity themselves, the scaffolding of diagnostic reasoning that typically emerges during the years of residency training may never fully develop.

That seems like cognitive surrender to AI, too.

‘Cognitive Surrender’ Is a New and Useful Term for How AI Melts Brains https://gizmodo.com/cognitive-surrender-is-a-new-and-useful-term-for-how-ai-melts-brains-2000742595

— Gizmodo (@gizmodo.com) 2026-04-05T21:45:04.497Z

[SheltieLover]

1. Never going to happen here as I absolutely refuse to use that garbage.

TY for sharing.

[cachukis]

2. It would seem cognitive surrender has been a

constant theme since whenever. We have very few leaders. The majority of us rely on instructions. They do have value; we don't have to figure everything on our own. Schools have value.
I suspect AI reliance will further detract from those looking for shortcuts, but have the benefit of speed.
Who is going to do the audit?
The search for a magic bullet is not necessarily the same as building a better mousetrap.
The transformation is wreaking havoc.
Slip on shoes v. ties.
The path of least resistance often has sway.

[OC375]

3. If something isn't needed, the human body routes energy and resources elsewhere.

We can train our brains to be smarter; to remember, recognize and connect the dots better.

It makes sense the we can make ourselves dumber, too.

Language is changing quickly, which impacts how we think and store and recall experiences, not just text.

So is the planet. Our nourishment will change sooner than later, as will the climate our bodies inhabit.

Anyhow, interesting times. Glad I grew up analog, and that digital is just how I pay the bills, not a lifestyle.

[anciano]

4. Interesting post....

especially the observation about likely changes in nutrition and climate adaptations. Thought provoking indeed...🤔

[meadowlander]

5. We're already kind of there.

Have you seen the price of tuna, cod or salmon recently?

I grew up lower middle class in the 80s and we had tuna fish sandwiches for lunch almost every day, fish sticks (with actual fish in them, not extruded paste) a few times a week and salmon every few weeks.

What lower middle class family can afford that now? Tuna at my local store is $2.15 a can at the moment. I can't even get cod anymore since the fisheries collapsed and salmon is $14 a pound for flabby farm raised barely edible stuff.