What is AI Doing to Us? with MIT professor Eric So

AI promises to do an ever-increasing and diversifying range of jobs for us. But MIT Sloan behavioural science professor Eric So says there’s a trade-off. Are people using AI to help them think, or instead of thinking? And, if so, what does that mean for the brain?

Eric's new book, The Collision: What AI Does to Us, isn't an anti-AI polemic. Instead, it explores the trade-off we might be making when we outsource to AI. Steve Jobs called the computer “a bicycle for the mind” – something that helps us to extend our range. Eric calls AI “a motorcycle for the mind” because, rather than elevating our thinking, it might send us racing headlong into losing our most valuable capabilities.

With vivid anecdotes and research Eric unpacks how dependence forms. He exposes the quieter dangers: sycophantic models that mirror our biases, echo chambers that harden disagreement, and an economic pressure he calls AI gravity that makes short-term advantage irresistible and long-term competence precarious.

Listen to this episode to find out:

• Why human cognitive scores have been falling since before most of us were born – and what that has to do with AI
• The behaviour that Eric observed that led him to writing the book and why it’s sometimes like taking a forklift to the gym
• Is there an AI arms race: people use AI not because it helps, but because they suspect rivals might be
• What a tragic real-world fire taught firefighters about trusting their tech too much
• Why the people who benefit most from AI at work might not be who you'd expect
• What happens when two people in an argument each go and consult their own AI

Links

Eric’s book ‘The Collision: What AI Does to Us’
https://uk.bookshop.org/a/15792/9781324124627 (affiliate link)

Connect with Eric at https://ericso.pro or https://www.linkedin.com/in/eric-so-87531768/

David Autor (MIT)’s research on how AI's benefits scale with a worker's prior experience:
https://economics.mit.edu/sites/default/files/2025-06/Autor-Thompson-Expertise-22050620.pdf

 

Chapters

0:01:04 — Why cognitive scores have fallen since 1975

0:06:51 — Why Eric wrote The Collision

0:10:50 — The cognitive ladder and abundant intelligence

0:17:04 — De-Skilling Me Softly: the warning signs

0:20:29 — The firefighters who trusted the camera too much

0:25:53 — Short-termism, lawsuits, and autopilot pilots

0:32:55 — Sycophancy, echo chambers and AI companions

0:35:54 — Good or bad? The motorcycle for the mind

0:42:25 — Guardrails, policy, and the AI arms race

0:48:20 — Optimism, and where to find the book

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Thanks for listening.

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