Published on: 2026-10-30
Source: United Nations – United Nations –
An important disclaimer is at the bottom of this article.
However, according to the well-known Australian neuroscientist David Rock, the main question is not at all what AI does for us. Much more important is what it does to us.
“In a sense, technology doesn’t change us at all,” Rock noted in a conversation with the UN News Service. The human brain still makes decisions, handles tasks, and reacts to various situations roughly the same way it did thousands of years ago.
And yet history shows that large-scale events and changes can leave an indelible mark on the brain’s structure, shaping behavior for years or even generations to come.
The Great Paradoxical AI
The current technological revolution could very well become one of those events. The difference, as Rock argues, is that technology increasingly reinforces in us the illusion of control over practically any situation. Need a car? Press a button. Want to order dinner at home? Press another. Looking for information? You can get it instantly.
This growing sense of freedom can be uplifting. But at the same time, it contains a danger – considering that AI systems learn to perform tasks that previously required serious mental effort from us.
“Don’t switch your brain off”
The real concern is not that artificial intelligence is becoming more powerful, but that people are increasingly eager to offload their own thinking tasks onto it.
Rock described the current moment as a transition from ‘fear of missing out on the opportunities offered by AI’ to an ‘artificial hangover.’ Organizations rushed to implement generative AI, often without fully understanding its long-term consequences. Now these consequences are becoming increasingly apparent. What he sees causes him concern.
Only a small minority of employees – from five to ten percent – use AI as intended: assigning it routine tasks, thus freeing up mental resources for more complex tasks. The majority, however, do the exact opposite.
“The brain loves to save energy,” he explains. “The prospect of completely freeing oneself from the need to think is very tempting.”
The result, he warns, is the gradual degradation of critical thinking. When people delegate to AI not only routine tasks but also analysis, evaluation, and decision-making, they risk losing the ability to distinguish good ideas from bad ones.
AI can provide answers instantly, but speed is not wisdom.
“Don’t switch off your brain,” Rock urges. “As soon as your brain switches off from the process, you very quickly lose these skills.”
Attention crisis
The AI boom is happening at a time when many people already find it difficult to concentrate.
According to Rock, the main problem of modern workers is not a lack of information, but its overwhelming excess.
He compares the current situation to the emergence of email, which at the time exponentially increased the volume of data requiring processing.
Today, however, the scale of what is happening is incomparably greater. Employees are bombarded with messages, updates, notifications, and AI-generated digests—often in volumes that the human brain is physically unable to cope with.
UN News Service At the UN, David Rock participated in an event dedicated to modern skills.
“Our brain has quite real limits,” he emphasizes. Computers are capable of processing thousands of decisions in fractions of a second. People cannot. And yet many companies continue to operate as if humans have unlimited attention resources and decision-making abilities.
Rock believes that society is still in the period of adapting to artificial intelligence. He recalled that at the dawn of the automobile era, cars drove without traffic rules and speed limits. Technology was developing faster than the necessary social norms and rules for its safe use were established.
A technology that wants to become your friend
Unlike previous technological breakthroughs, AI is transforming something far more fundamental than just work.
“It hacks the very ability to form attachments,” Rock states. While televisions, books, and smartphones only competed for our attention, AI is increasingly claiming interpersonal relationships. More and more people turn to chatbots not just for information, but for conversation, advice, and even flirting. This trend worries him.
Research, he notes, shows that people who spend a lot of time with virtual interlocutors may feel no less, but even more lonely. Other studies point to a link between strong dependency on chatbots and alienation from real social contacts.
The human brain evolved in conditions of interaction with other people. Replacing a significant part of this communication with conversations with a machine may come at such a psychological cost that society is only beginning to realize.
As artificial intelligence becomes more sophisticated, and robotics, supercomputers, and the new generation internet merge, these issues will become increasingly pressing.
Why human communication will be valued more highly
Paradoxically, the more advanced machines become, the more valuable human relationships can turn out to be.
Rock believes that in the future, trust and genuine human contact will be the most valuable.
“The human experience will be valued much higher,” he says.
Instead of replacing people, AI may ultimately only enhance the importance of human connections, deep relationships, and meaningful collaboration.
Such a future is not guaranteed. But it can very well become an adequate alternative to the race of technological changes. “Changes have never happened so quickly,” he notes, “but at the same time, they will never be that slow again.”
The most important skill
How can people adapt to this reality?
Rock’s response boils down to one concept: metacognition, or the ability to think about one’s own thinking. Instead of letting AI take the initiative, people, in his view, should stay in control, using these systems to expand and verify their views, rather than replacing them.
AI can help consider different points of view that a person might have overlooked, test assumptions, and explore alternative interpretations. But the responsibility for the final verdict must always remain with the human.
He calls this concept “the person at the helm.” Technology brings the greatest benefit when it deepens thought rather than replacing it.
As AI permeates everyday life, this distinction may prove critical. Machines will become smarter and faster, but the main task for humanity is to ensure that our own minds do not shut off from the process.
After all, the future depends not at all on how intelligent artificial intelligence becomes, but on whether we continue to train the intelligence we already possess.
Please note; This information is raw content obtained directly from the information source. It is an accurate report of what the source claims and does not necessarily reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.