A Neuro Perspective on Overusing AI (and How to Use It Without Losing Your Edge)
AI is an incredible tool. I use it and I love it, obvi. It can help plan a family trip, organize your macros, tell you the difference between a buffalo and a bison, plan your finances and investments, teach you how to do things and the list goes on! But THAT is the problem isn’t it? AI can do anything. It can even take over THINKING for us. Soif we’re not intentional, it can quietly train our nervous system into a pattern that looks like “efficiency” but functions like dependence and almost zero cognition (not good). If everything is a skill, then some skills are good and some skills are bad right? From a brain perspective, the question is not “Is AI good or bad?” The question is: What are you training your attention, memory, and problem-solving systems to do every day?
I listened to a teacher recently say that he could see all the kids' screens while they were taking a test on their computers and one kid was done fairly quickly. The child moved on to other work he had to do. He watched him copy and paste a question from another teacher’s exam, put it into Gemini (an AI software) and once gemini spit out the answer, the child then prompted it to “make the common mistakes a high schooler would make in the answer.” So then the child took the new answer, put it into his exam form, and boom he was done. Ok ok, not so shocking right? Until this part…The teacher talked to him after class and asked him what the exam question was and the kid DID NOT READ THE QUESTION. He said “I have no idea.” and THAT is absolutely wild to me. THAT is the problem. So they went back to the exam together and get this, the exam question was “What do you think are the pros and cons of using AI in high school?” Can you believe that?! That is where we are these days. This is the part that scares me. AI doesn't scare me, it’s the way we use it and how easy it is to let it think for us.
Just last week my husband and I were talking about a show called “fallout” that he got me into (which is so weird because I loathe the television but wanted to bond with him during maternity leave so I agreed to it haha and it was actually interesting!) and we were going back and forth about what one scene meant, and what this dad meant when he said a certain line. My husband immediately pulled his phone to ask AI all the questions we had about this TV show and I said “Hey! We are having a conversation! I don’t want you to look up the answer. I want to actually hear what you think that scene meant and what you think that dad meant, even if it’s wrong, I want to TALK IT OUT.” My husband looked at me like I had 10 heads. He asked me why he can’t just look up the answer. Insert eye roll! Haha Small example, but you get the idea. It is way to easy to just get answers and even have to think and discuss things anymore.
Your brain loves to offload, because it’s efficient
There’s a real concept in cognitive science called cognitive offloading, which basically means we use tools and actions in the environment to reduce the mental effort a task requires. Think reminders, notes, GPS, calculators… and now AI. Evan F. Risko, a psychology researcher at the University of Waterloo, and Sam J. Gilbert, a cognitive neuroscientist at the UCL Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, describe cognitive offloading as using physical action or external tools to reduce cognitive demand. In their 2016 review, they pulled together research across multiple domains to explain both why we offload and how that habit can shape cognition over time (Risko & Gilbert, 2016).
Offloading is not automatically “bad.” Sometimes it’s brilliant. But if everything gets offloaded, you stop giving your brain reps in the exact skills you say you value: focus, recall, creativity, discernment, and decision-making under uncertainty. Doing this day in and day out will surely have impact and influence on the brain and therefore movement and pain because of course that is what you care about and that is why you are even reading this blog. When the brain is messed with, everything is messed with. We’ve been seeing younger and younger populations coming in with chronic pain for the last 10 years. At first I got a lot of “tech neck” clients getting younger and younger and now it is autoimmune, migraines, global discomfort, breathing issues etc. It can get really scary really fast if we don’t try and “combat” the inevitable. For example, for every 20 minutes you stare at a screen, stare at something 20 feet away for 20 seconds. STUPID SIMPLE, but in the long run, can really help mitigate the screen causing issues.
“Google effects” are real, and AI can amplify them
One of the most cited studies in this space showed that when people expect information to be accessible later, they’re more likely to remember where to find it than the information itself (guilty as charged here). That’s how memory works when the environment provides a reliable external storage system. In a 2011 study by psychologists Betsy Sparrow, Jenny Liu, and Daniel Wegner, the researchers called this the “Google effects on memory,” and they found people had lower recall for information when they believed it would be available later, while recall for where to access it improved (Sparrow, Liu, & Wegner, 2011).
Now take that mechanism and hand it a tool that not only stores info, but also synthesizes, drafts, and decides. If you use AI as your first stop for everything, your brain learns a new default: don’t retrieve, wrestle, or reason… just outsource.
Personal example: Right now I am in the initial phases of writing a book and of course it would be easier to have AI write out my table of contents for me (that’s the first step in writing a book) and I might WANT to do that but I absolutely will not. No way Jose. Once I have personally used a pen and paper to write out what I want the contents to be (listen I am 40 years old so I still use pen and paper AND I write in cursive! haha), I might ask AI to organize it so it is in a more streamlined order, or ask if I am missing something that it knows I am passionate about teaching. This is the way I think AI can significantly decrease the amount of time spent on a specific task.
The nervous system angle: what you repeat becomes your baseline
In my world, we talk all the time about inputs. ALL. THE. TIME. The brain is always asking “what do I do with this?” and then it adapts. The same thing happens cognitively.
Overusing AI can unintentionally train:
Lower tolerance for cognitive discomfort (the “ugh I don’t want to think” moment)
Shortened attention spans (constant novelty, constant switching)
Weaker retrieval habits (less practicing pulling information from memory)
Less confidence in your own judgment (because the tool always has an answer)
There’s also broader research looking at how the online environment can impact attention and memory processes, including how constant streams of information can pull us toward divided attention and how reliance on online information can shift what we store internally (Firth et al., 2019).
Think about this, when is the last time you could hold a thought for longer than 30 seconds…go ahead, I’ll wait. I’m not pointing fingers, I am absolutely a part of this generation and my hope is that bringing the concern forward helps you actually think about the ramifications for you and your loved ones. To me, brain health, brain stem health, eye exercises are no longer optional. They can’t be. Because 8 year olds are coming in with “tech neck” and guess what, imagine adding 40 years of that on top of that nervous system and body? Kids aren’t playing outside until it gets dark anymore, they are locked up in rooms on screens and again, this is why eye exercises cannot be optional anymore, it is CRUCIAL.
The biggest risk is not that AI makes you “dumber”
The biggest risk is that it makes you less practiced.
Just like movement quality, cognition is use-dependent. If you always brace instead of breathe, you get better at bracing. If you always outsource instead of problem-solve, you get better at outsourcing. And then one day you’re in a real-time situation (client session, tough conversation, content idea on the spot, a launch pivot) and you feel weirdly… blank.
It’s because your system hasn’t been training that lane. #oops Don’t you feel it already? You kinda don’t know what to say in a group setting? Without emojis it’s harder to describe how you feel? You don’t know what to do with the silence between you and a stranger, so you look at your phone? This is our world today.
How to use AI in a way that supports your brain (and your business)
Great news: I come with solutions haha! This isn’t a gloom and doom blog, it’s a “just a heads up, let’s get this on your radar” blog.
Here are my “keep your nervous system sharp” rules. Steal them.
1) Do one rep before you ask AI
Before you prompt a robot, take a breath and 2 minutes and do the ugly first draft: your thoughts, your outline, your hypothesis. Then ask AI to look it over and ask if it the goal is clear and if there are any shortcoming towards that goal. It can then tighten, expand, polish up or cross-check your already created work while NOT doing the work for you. This keeps you in the driver’s seat. Brene Brown calls this the “SFD” the “Shitty First Draft” - bust that out FIRST and then use AI to polish it up.
2) Use AI as a mirror and sounding board, not a brain
Good prompts sound like:
“Here’s my first draft. Is the goal clear? Can you make it clearer without changing my tone?”
“What am I missing in this? Give me 5 counterpoints and answer any common objections that would come up for my specific audience.”
“Turn this idea into 10 hooks for reels (insert specific demographic), but keep my voice and conviction.”
Be careful with prompts like:
“Write my entire email for me.”
“Tell me what to do in this situation.”
“Decide on my offer(s).”
3) Build a “no AI” lane on purpose
Pick one area where you keep your cognition strong:
Writing your first 5 hooks
Your client explanations in normal human English
Your programming logic
Your weekly content outline
How to deal with that tough conversation you need to have
Then let AI support the rest.
4) Close the loop with retrieval
After you use AI, do a 30-second recap from memory (this is alone in your own thoughts by the way, not with a screen) :
“What did I learn?”
“Is this TRULY aligned with my values?”
“What do I actually believe?”
“What will I do with this in session?”
This directly pushes against the “I’ll just look it up later” effect described in the Google memory research. Source
Final thoughts
AI is not the enemy, but endless use without thought is an issue.
Use AI to reduce friction, not to remove your ownership. Let it support your creativity, not replace it. The real flex is having a nervous system that can focus, decide, and communicate clearly when it matters. Your brain is counting on you to continue to THINK for yourself.
This video is absolutely incredible and so insightful. Make sure to hear her favorite prompt around the 1 hour and 10 minute mark. This whole interview was mind blowing for me. Listen to it chunks if you have to, like me!
Remember that whatever you're practicing now is what you're getting good at, whether it's something you want or don't want. Both versions are hard, so choose your hard.
I love you, you got this!
Write back and let me know what thoughts this sparked for you, after you read it!
See you next month ;)