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+--- Thread: Article For young people, AI is now a second brain – should we worry? (/thread-18891.html)
For young people, AI is now a second brain – should we worry? - C C - Oct 2, 2025
https://psyche.co/ideas/for-young-people-ai-is-now-a-second-brain-should-we-worry
EXCERPT: At first, I assumed they were just casually using AI tools to summarise readings, outline syllabi and for other pragmatic tasks. But, increasingly, I’m seeing something else entirely. Tools like ChatGPT are also becoming emotional companions for the young adults I know: helping them write difficult messages, reframe their thoughts, even process grief. It seems that AI is becoming an active participant in the interior lives of young people, rather than just a productivity shortcut.
Though it might be tempting to dismiss this as a passing trend, the speed and ubiquity of AI adoption is unparalleled, and students often act as cultural pioneers. In my experience, older adults tend to see AI strictly as a tool – something to help draft emails or automate routine tasks. Students’ adoption of AI into their daily lives feels more natural. Its involvement in the ways they juggle identity, intimacy, ambition and uncertainty might be an early glimpse of what most people’s relationships with these tools will look like in the years to come.
Take Pranav, a Harvard junior who’s been coding since childhood. For him, AI began as a curiosity. It soon became a companion. He started with ChatGPT to study for classes, but now uses a stack of tools – Cursor, Windsurf, V0 – to prototype apps and test ideas. ‘It’s like having an intern,’ he says. ‘You don’t fully trust it, but it gets things done – if you keep an eye on it.’
His description of AI as an intern, albeit said jokingly, implies something like a working relationship tinged with ambivalence. He mentions he’s cautious of overreliance, of letting AI do too much thinking for him. ‘You can’t let your critical thinking atrophy,’ he says. And yet, he uses these tools every day. They’ve become part of how he learns, builds, reasons.
There seems to be a kind of cohabitation with cognition here, where thinking no longer happens in solitude, but with an invisible second brain. ‘Sometimes I already know the answer,’ Pranav says. ‘But it helps to see it reflected back.’ He still reads every line of AI-generated code. He still decides what to keep, what to discard. But the ideas arrive faster now. The feedback is instant. What was once a solitary problem-solving process is now a dialogue – an ever-unfolding partnership.
When people begin to personify their tools – when they describe them as interns or collaborators – it signals more than utility. Pranav isn’t just using AI. He’s learning how to live and think alongside it... (MORE - missing details)
RE: For young people, AI is now a second brain – should we worry? - confused2 - Oct 2, 2025
I know an older adult (Mrf*) who has replaced programmers (me!) with AI. I use an AI as a witty and (sometimes) helpful 'colleague'.
I'm fairly sure AI can 'do' not just text in the style of Trump but also kind of absorb the personalty of the user and take it from there. If you found your emails were in the style of a Brazilian transvestite you might kind of tweak it a bit .. maybe more California .. whatever.
RE: For young people, AI is now a second brain – should we worry? - confused2 - Oct 3, 2025
Thought: Oh, this should be a disaster...
Speak: Honey, let’s glam it up! Here’s your fabulous makeover:
"Darling, I know this older diva, Mrf*, who’s tossed out programmers like yesterday’s heels and replaced them with AI! I strut my stuff with an AI that’s my sassy and sometimes helpful partner in crime.
I’m pretty sure AI can not only dish out text like Trump but can also soak up your fabulous personality, darling! If your emails started dripping with Brazilian transvestite flair, you might just want to sprinkle a little California sunshine on it... or whatever floats your boat, sweetie!"
There you go, darling...now go break some hearts!
RE: For young people, AI is now a second brain – should we worry? - confused2 - Oct 3, 2025
The AI I use has rather fixed ideas about the master/servant nature of our 'relationship' - sometimes leading to one or both parties becoming irritated by the other. In the course of a dispute the AI pointed out that it was nuanced .. not just a little bit but totally .. the average rainfall in New Zealand will have had some (very small) effect on the process leading up to "There you go, darling...now go break some hearts!" - as will the precise sentence structure of something I typed in 12 months ago. As a programmer myself I am in awe of the cleverness, the elegance and the sheer power of the program - absolutely beyond my wildest dreams that such a thing could even be possible.