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Ask HN: Is anyone experiencing "AI brain rot?"

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Ask HN: Is anyone experiencing "AI brain rot?"

#1
I’ve noticed that the more often I ask for AI assistance or “vibe code” things, the less sharp I am at solving difficult challenges of a similar nature the next time.

Has anyone else felt the boost brings weakness at times when you need to show strength?

Re: Ask HN: Is anyone experiencing "AI brain rot?"

#2
Perhaps not surprising given what we know about how e.g. satnav usage affects our navigational competence. Feels like outsourcing our reasoning and problem solving would have an analagous effect.

"Habitual use of GPS negatively impacts spatial memory during self-guided navigation": https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-62877-0

Re: Ask HN: Is anyone experiencing "AI brain rot?"

#4
Not just satnav, but as a kid I could remember at least 20 phone number of close friends and family. My spelling used to be quite good, but now I struggle with words my 9 year old can spell. I think this is the way with any new technology, we just move to the next level of abstraction and hopefully get to build bigger/better things...maybe.

Re: Ask HN: Is anyone experiencing "AI brain rot?"

#5
I find that Copilot's suggestions are not quite what I want in most cases, so I have to edit what they give me anyway.

I know Primagen had a similar experience that you had, he found it useful to keep the AI chat out of his direct editor, and that's how I've been using it too.

Re: Ask HN: Is anyone experiencing "AI brain rot?"

#6
post #4

Not just satnav, but as a kid I could remember at least 20 phone number of close friends and family. My spelling used to be quite good, but now I struggle with words my 9 year old can spell. I think this is the way with any new technology, we just move to the next level of abstraction and hopefully get to build bigger/better things...maybe.

I've never heard of spelling regressing.

I think my spelling ability is mostly correlated to how much I have read. I know how to spell many words I've never used myself.

Re: Ask HN: Is anyone experiencing "AI brain rot?"

#9

how is it possible? what size and complexity projects are you working with? I have integrated llms into my dev workflow as much as possible and they are just not capable of doing all that much.

One time trying to fix a redux problem gemini started rewriting redux itself.

Re: Ask HN: Is anyone experiencing "AI brain rot?"

#10
post #4

Not just satnav, but as a kid I could remember at least 20 phone number of close friends and family. My spelling used to be quite good, but now I struggle with words my 9 year old can spell. I think this is the way with any new technology, we just move to the next level of abstraction and hopefully get to build bigger/better things...maybe.

I do find that my ability to multitask has improved as of late, and I can switch contexts much faster by just knowing that I can quickly probe an AI to bring up to speed on a topic I used to know in detail about.

(Though it could also just be that I've gotten significantly better at taking notes over the last 5 years)

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