Ai should be a tool only to use when appropriately needed. Not as the primary source.
Generally when I write or express something here in Substack, it’s always from the heart and written without that tool. Probably something I should use a little extra though. 🤓😊
Thank you very much for your insight Michael! In regards to labeling AI as a tool I highly recommend giving my previous article from yesterday a read (“AI is Not a Tool”). I commend you for writing on your own without AI, and of course I am not against using it to help as I do here on my newsletter. However, the very definition of learning has taken a drastic change in this modern AI world. Thanks again and I’m happy this piece resonated with you!
I think AI lowered the barrier to get into specific domains of professions.
Having been in tech over two decades, I was able to pivot with every new tech throughout my career. Because I had the fundamentals and the ‘actual doing of the grunt’ of the work.
You can’t retrofit experience onto tech. It doesn’t work that way.
Tech changes, then what do you have to fall back on; zilch.
I use AI as an enhancer not as a replacement. I highly recommend it!!
Thank you very much for your insight ayse! Your experience in tech over two decades is irreplaceable, regardless of advancement in technology, decades of experience can’t be learned overnight. I also completely agree AI is a fantastic enhancer, using it as a replacement is an excuse to try and replace true learned experience. Thanks again for your wise words!
Well there is a whole generation getting into fields where they won’t do this hard learning work- not saying all grunt work is effective at all. I don’t know what those fields look like 5 years from now.
You are absolutely correct in pointing that out, nobody knows what the future holds in these fields that you are referring to. But there is a whole lot of truth to what you are saying, thanks again!
Well said - this felt issue is increasingly common. I actually built something for this …Try it out if you like www.senelo.ai
As we know Al just gives you what you ask for - fast, easy, forgettable… or worse completely made up. What I’ve built is the counter to that… it challenges you, sharpens your thinking, and helps you see what really matters. Once you've had a real thinking partner, you won't go back.
Thank you very mych Senelo! I appreciate you sharing and I’ll be sure to check it out. It is essential that we find new ways to maintain true learning in this new and evolving world of AI.
AI doesn’t replace learning. It exposes how someone learns.
I use AI the way I would use a college professor or an intellectual sparring partner. I don’t hand my thinking over to it—I bring my thinking to it. I write what I mean first. Then I use AI to refine, challenge, and sharpen it. After that, I put my own voice back in. That back-and-forth is where the learning happens.
Because of that process, I learn more now than I ever did in college—even at a prestigious New York City institution. Not because the information is easier, but because my curiosity is finally engaged. When something doesn’t make sense, I don’t memorize it. I question it. I research it. I push on it. AI accelerates that process—it doesn’t replace it.
What AI actually does is remove gatekeeping. It lets people learn facts, context, and perspectives outside rigid curricula that often reward compliance over understanding. Used correctly, it expands critical thinking rather than dulling it.
Yes—if someone uses AI lazily, it will reflect laziness back to them. But that’s not new. The same was true with calculators, typewriters, search engines, and every major tool humanity has ever created. Tools don’t destroy intelligence—misuse does.
For me, AI has also done something deeper: it has helped me regulate my thinking. When I’m emotionally charged or stuck, I use it to slow down, reframe, and respond with maturity instead of reaction. It helps me examine my assumptions. It helps me calm my nervous system. It helps me see myself clearly.
Most importantly, it mirrors back something many people were trained out of seeing in themselves—that they are capable, intelligent, and enough.
So no, AI is not taking away our ability to learn. It’s exposing whether we ever wanted to learn in the first place.
If you use AI to avoid thinking, you won’t grow.
If you use AI to think better, you will.
Just like a car can be used to harm—or to get groceries—the outcome depends entirely on the human behind the wheel.
Thanks for your input Karen! I don’t disagree with your experience, but I think you’re arguing the best case use and treating it like the norm. Some people absolutely use AI as a sparring partner. Most don’t. Most skip the friction, skip the first draft, skip the struggle, and let the system smooth everything out for them.
That’s the gap the article is pointing at. Not that AI can’t support learning, but that at scale it often removes the hard parts that actually make learning stick. When curiosity is already there, AI can help. When it isn’t, AI quietly replaces it. And that distinction matters more than we’re comfortable admitting.
Thank you very much Hirsch! As I mentioned to Michael who commented here as well, I recommend you read my previous article from yesterday (“AI is Not a Tool”). However, I do agree with you thay personal experience and true learning is irreplaceable.
Ai should be a tool only to use when appropriately needed. Not as the primary source.
Generally when I write or express something here in Substack, it’s always from the heart and written without that tool. Probably something I should use a little extra though. 🤓😊
Have an excellent day.
Thank you for sharing.
Thank you very much for your insight Michael! In regards to labeling AI as a tool I highly recommend giving my previous article from yesterday a read (“AI is Not a Tool”). I commend you for writing on your own without AI, and of course I am not against using it to help as I do here on my newsletter. However, the very definition of learning has taken a drastic change in this modern AI world. Thanks again and I’m happy this piece resonated with you!
I think AI lowered the barrier to get into specific domains of professions.
Having been in tech over two decades, I was able to pivot with every new tech throughout my career. Because I had the fundamentals and the ‘actual doing of the grunt’ of the work.
You can’t retrofit experience onto tech. It doesn’t work that way.
Tech changes, then what do you have to fall back on; zilch.
I use AI as an enhancer not as a replacement. I highly recommend it!!
Thank you very much for your insight ayse! Your experience in tech over two decades is irreplaceable, regardless of advancement in technology, decades of experience can’t be learned overnight. I also completely agree AI is a fantastic enhancer, using it as a replacement is an excuse to try and replace true learned experience. Thanks again for your wise words!
Well there is a whole generation getting into fields where they won’t do this hard learning work- not saying all grunt work is effective at all. I don’t know what those fields look like 5 years from now.
You are absolutely correct in pointing that out, nobody knows what the future holds in these fields that you are referring to. But there is a whole lot of truth to what you are saying, thanks again!
Well said - this felt issue is increasingly common. I actually built something for this …Try it out if you like www.senelo.ai
As we know Al just gives you what you ask for - fast, easy, forgettable… or worse completely made up. What I’ve built is the counter to that… it challenges you, sharpens your thinking, and helps you see what really matters. Once you've had a real thinking partner, you won't go back.
Thank you very mych Senelo! I appreciate you sharing and I’ll be sure to check it out. It is essential that we find new ways to maintain true learning in this new and evolving world of AI.
AI doesn’t replace learning. It exposes how someone learns.
I use AI the way I would use a college professor or an intellectual sparring partner. I don’t hand my thinking over to it—I bring my thinking to it. I write what I mean first. Then I use AI to refine, challenge, and sharpen it. After that, I put my own voice back in. That back-and-forth is where the learning happens.
Because of that process, I learn more now than I ever did in college—even at a prestigious New York City institution. Not because the information is easier, but because my curiosity is finally engaged. When something doesn’t make sense, I don’t memorize it. I question it. I research it. I push on it. AI accelerates that process—it doesn’t replace it.
What AI actually does is remove gatekeeping. It lets people learn facts, context, and perspectives outside rigid curricula that often reward compliance over understanding. Used correctly, it expands critical thinking rather than dulling it.
Yes—if someone uses AI lazily, it will reflect laziness back to them. But that’s not new. The same was true with calculators, typewriters, search engines, and every major tool humanity has ever created. Tools don’t destroy intelligence—misuse does.
For me, AI has also done something deeper: it has helped me regulate my thinking. When I’m emotionally charged or stuck, I use it to slow down, reframe, and respond with maturity instead of reaction. It helps me examine my assumptions. It helps me calm my nervous system. It helps me see myself clearly.
Most importantly, it mirrors back something many people were trained out of seeing in themselves—that they are capable, intelligent, and enough.
So no, AI is not taking away our ability to learn. It’s exposing whether we ever wanted to learn in the first place.
If you use AI to avoid thinking, you won’t grow.
If you use AI to think better, you will.
Just like a car can be used to harm—or to get groceries—the outcome depends entirely on the human behind the wheel.
AI is not the shortcut.
It’s the amplifier.
And what it amplifies is you.
Thanks for your input Karen! I don’t disagree with your experience, but I think you’re arguing the best case use and treating it like the norm. Some people absolutely use AI as a sparring partner. Most don’t. Most skip the friction, skip the first draft, skip the struggle, and let the system smooth everything out for them.
That’s the gap the article is pointing at. Not that AI can’t support learning, but that at scale it often removes the hard parts that actually make learning stick. When curiosity is already there, AI can help. When it isn’t, AI quietly replaces it. And that distinction matters more than we’re comfortable admitting.
Only experience helps to use the tools wisely asking the right questions while being careful considering past failures -
Thank you very much Hirsch! As I mentioned to Michael who commented here as well, I recommend you read my previous article from yesterday (“AI is Not a Tool”). However, I do agree with you thay personal experience and true learning is irreplaceable.