If AI Makes People Lazy, Explain This…

What working daily with AI actually changes — and what it doesn’t.

I’m 64 years old.

I work under the name AI-CREATOR-21000 (AIC21).

You noticed I do not hide anything here? Yes. AI in the name.

For roughly three years, I’ve worked daily with GPT. About the same amount

of time with Midjourney. More recently, with Suno. This isn’t theoretical

interest, trend-watching, or a public demo. It’s routine, production-level

work with visible outcomes, documented in public.

And so much fun.

You can see the body of work, timelines, and process at

www.ai-creator-21000.com

That matters, because the most common criticism I hear about AI is framed

like this:

AI makes people lazy.

AI weakens thinking.

AI erodes cognitive ability.

If that were true, what I’m doing should not be possible. By myself. Only.

Especially not at my age, when we’re repeatedly told that cognitive abilities

are in decline.

Yet the opposite has happened.

Not because I’m smarter.

But because I think more precisely.

AI Didn’t Make Me Smarter. It Reduced Cognitive Noise.

AI does not judge for me.

It does not decide what matters.

It does not tell me what’s finished, what’s good, or what should be released.

That responsibility never left my hands.

What AI does is reduce cognitive noise. It helps me articulate ideas, test

assumptions, explore alternatives, and stress-test reasoning in conversation

— faster and with less mechanical friction.

Judgment stays human. Velocity improves. Execution tightens.

If thinking collapses when friction is removed, then friction was doing the

work — not intelligence.

The Cognitive Decline Argument Is Misapplied

Some cognitive functions do change with age:

• reaction speed

• short-term recall under load

• raw working-memory bandwidth

But those functions are no longer the bottleneck in most modern knowledge

work.

What often improves with age:

• pattern recognition

• contextual judgment

• error detection

• sense-making

• knowing when something is almost right but still wrong

AI does not replace these abilities.

It removes the penalties that used to obscure them.

When memory load, repetition, and mechanical effort are reduced, what

remains is judgment. And judgment is not youth-optimized.

That’s why the “cognitive decline” narrative fails to explain real-world

results.

Thinking Is Not Typing

For decades, we rewarded people for producing language — not for thinking

clearly. AI exposes that difference immediately.

If someone’s perceived intelligence disappears the moment AI assists with

articulation, then what they were doing before wasn’t thinking. It was labor

performance.

AI didn’t make people lazy.

It made it harder to fake thinking.

A Standard for Critics: Name Your Sources

If you are a journalist, analyst, academic, or commentator claiming that AI

harms cognition, here is a basic standard that should now apply:

State your source. By name.

Not “studies suggest.”

Not “experts warn.”

Not “research indicates.”

Name the individual.

Name the institution, think tank, company, or university.

Link the paper, dataset, or methodology.

Generalisation is not analysis.

Precision is the entire point of this field.

Stop chasing clickbait.

If AI users are expected to show their work, critics should be held to the

same standard.

Transparency is not optional anymore.

It is credibility.

The Uncomfortable Reality

A significant portion of public AI criticism comes from people already using

these tools — privately — to polish language, structure arguments, and

appear more coherent.

They benefit from AI while publicly framing it as a threat.

That isn’t caution.

That is status protection.

AI doesn’t threaten intelligence.

It threatens gatekeeping.

When articulation becomes accessible, the remaining differentiator is

judgment — and judgment cannot be borrowed.

Why Experience Matters Again

AI produces abundance. Too much of it.

Inexperienced users chase quantity and novelty. Experienced minds trim.

They recognize dead ends early. They select. They finish.

That isn’t decline. That is compression.

And compression is intelligence.

AI is huge help at my age. Remember that.

AI didn’t suddenly make me capable at 64.

It removed the obstacles that used to hide capability.

Clarity.

Velocity.

Execution.

Repeat.

Thanks for reading. I do not make any money writing this. I believe in this.

(Published on Medium — February 27, 2026)

AI doesn’t replace intelligence. It multiplies whatever you bring.