Over dinner, my wife and I found ourselves discussing AI.
Her concern was simple and valid:
AI may slowly weaken our mental abilities.
Just as we no longer remember phone numbers, we may stop thinking deeply if machines do too much for us.
I see it differently.
I believe AI doesn’t shrink the mind —
it frees it.
To explain my perspective, I offered a familiar example.
There was a time when cooking was a full-time skill inside the home.
As women became educated, many chose to study, work, and earn.
Households hired cooks.
Yes, some cooking skills faded.
But women moved into value-added work — economic, intellectual, creative.
We didn’t say:
“Education will destroy cooking, so women must stay in the kitchen.”
We understood something important:
- Skills can be outsourced
- Judgment and purpose cannot
Cooking didn’t vanish.
It specialised.
That’s how I see AI.
Let AI handle:
- Repetition
- First drafts
- Information search
- Mechanical thinking
So humans can focus on:
- Judgment
- Ethics
- Creativity
- Meaning
- Second-order thinking
My wife fears dependency.
I see liberation — if used consciously.
The problem is not losing a skill.
The problem is losing intentional thinking.
Just like cooking:
- Learn the skill
- Respect its value
- Outsource it deliberately
AI should not replace the human mind.
It should clear space for higher thinking.
AI should free the mind, not replace it.
And that, perhaps, is the balance we’re really debating.
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