Lately, I’ve been surrounded by studies, tweets, and heated conversations all warning the same thing: artificial intelligence is making us dumber, lazier, and creatively numb. Some even argue that it will slowly replace our ability to think for ourselves.
Ironically, I was the only person in my circle still living with pens and notebooks—no AI planning apps, no AI writing tools, not even AI search. As a translator, I thought that made me somewhat cool. But instead of being praised for my independence, I was criticized for being outdated, slow to adapt, even resistant to change. Classic human hypocrisy.
Curious to test this for myself, I started using ChatGPT non-stop for a few months, in every possible area of my daily life. From writing emails to planning meals, from brainstorming ideas to drafting work notes—even for terminology discussions in translation assignments.
What I discovered is simple: AI doesn’t make you stupid. You become mentally passive only if you hand over your thinking to a ready-made mechanism because it feels easier, not because it is inevitable.
Fed by human data, AI does its best to navigate you, meet your demands, and address you in different voices. But here’s the key question: how much trust do you place in your own voice, your research skills, and your expertise? During this trial, ChatGPT couldn’t change my voice or override what I wanted to say—simply because I didn’t let it.
The Real Risk
As human beings, we dramatize new technologies far too much. Instead of sinking into the warm arms of laziness, we should use technology the way it was intended: as a support, not a substitute.
Workloads are heavy, deadlines are unrealistic, and underpayment is exhausting. Sometimes, we don’t even have the energy left to think. Depending on AI may seem like salvation in those moments. But this dependency is dangerous, as recent research warns. An arXiv preprint even explored how people develop intimate, emotional bonds with AI partners, blurring the lines between authentic human interaction and machine-mediated connection.
Balance Is Key
That’s why I believe everything beyond reference is poison. Keep things in balance. Don’t lose your own voice or your mental battery. Don’t forget the joy of researching and creating.
While it’s impossible to isolate ourselves completely from new technologies, we can choose how much we let them shape us. AI was created by humans—by us, fragile beings in flesh prisons. It is still just a tool, idle until you ask it to produce.
Don’t let anything, or anyone, pull you away from your humanness or make your abilities seem less worthy. And don’t let opportunists persuade you that it’s normal to be replaceable.
Just let technology be your servant, not the other way around.
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Between Everywhere and Nowhere 
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