to a point we no longer think for ourselves, before the human brain can readily accept Elon Musk's Neuralink brain implant which will turn us all into geniuses

And Elon Musk is like the evil overseer in those movies.

other genAI tools dumbed users down. Studies have since confirmed that.

We all know the damaging effects smartphones have had. AI is much worse.

I've taught at two colleges for the past 20 years. In every class, the first thing I talk about is "information hygiene", basically the importance of knowing how to decipher truth from bullshit in the internet age and the importance of developing critical thinking skills. My exams are always heavy on essays where there is no right or wrong answer, but a right way and a wrong way to prepare your answer. You don't have to agree with what I teach as long as you back it up with facts and logic. My tests are take home, a week to complete and you have access to all class materials to assist with your answers. Learning things is not about memorizing and repeating and properly thinking through complex policy questions is not a stunt to be performed in an hour and 15 minutes or less. I tell them there is no reason to cheat, just put the effort in and you'll do fine-and if you do cheat, odds are I will find out. Despite my warnings, I've had kids try to cheat all kinds of different ways instead of thinking their way through the answers. Started with trying to google their way through, then there was crowd sourcing answers on sites like Chegg and now Chat GPT. Last semester I was grading mid-term exams and came across a 5 paragraph answer that was so far out in left field I couldn't figure out where it came from. I shook my head and continued through the submissions. Well, by the time I was done, there were 5 tests that had the same bullshit answer that had no connection to the class or reality. So, I put the question into Chat GPT-sure enough, there was the magic answer. Next class, when I asked those 5 students to remain afterwards and they all looked at me with the same expression-like your dog when you ask him what the atomic weight of Plutonium is-and denied they did anything wrong. I laid the 5 submissions on the desk in front of them along with my matching results from Chat GPT. After explaining to them that while it was crazy enough that one test would have this answer that it would be statistically impossible for 5 of them to show up and that I had gotten the same results using Chat GPT they realized they were busted. I don't know if it was out and out laziness or that they just hadn't been called upon to think things through thoroughly before, but this was an alarming sign.