Humans Panic They’re Outsmarted By AI, Experts Prescribe Reading and Brain Gymnastics

KEY POINTS

•Tech leaders including Cisco’s Anurag Dhingra and PwC’s Geetha Rajan cautioned about AI making workers mentally lazy in 2026.
•Experts like Johns Hopkins’ Dr. Majid Fotuhi and UCSF’s Michael Merzenich recommended hobbies, deep learning, and memory exercises to stay sharp.
•Researchers focused on AI-human collaboration methods, emphasizing frameworks like Denmark’s Jacob Sherson’s FERC to maintain active human thinking.

In the shocking 2026 revelation that AI can make you dumb unless you lift brain weights, Cisco’s Anurag Dhingra pondered whether tech dependence is the modern 'Are we getting dumber?' crisis, currently answered with a hopeful 'Not necessarily.' Johns Hopkins’ Dr. Majid Fotuhi warned of ‘mental muscle atrophy’ from letting chatbots do all the heavy lifting, while UC Irvine’s Gloria Mark begged us to read long-form and resist the abyss of AI doing all the work. PwC’s Geetha Rajan still writes first drafts without AI, like it’s 1999, and EY’s Joe Depa swears by emailing first—because Copilot is apparently more coach than cheat. Meanwhile, brain plasticity pioneer Michael Merzenich preached the gospel that brains need exercise like some neuro-gym, recommending hobbies, memory tests, and taking the scenic route sans GPS. Denmark’s Jacob Sherson introduced the FERC framework to keep humans from becoming passive AI consumers—because accepting one AI output, apparently, is intellectual malpractice now. Lastly, ex-tech exec Sol Rashidi and Possibility Institute’s Vivienne Ming warned of falling for the 'competence illusion,' urging people to explain AI’s help out loud—even if it’s just to their dog. The takeaway? If your brain isn’t sweating, you’re probably just AI’s benchwarmer.