Derek Thompson

On the podcast, Plain English, just the other week, I did an episode on what I call the decline of reading. by a variety of measures. Americans read much less than they used to. They read fewer books, they read fewer magazine articles. Everything has become chunkified. Everything has become really, really fast. You look at it, it's an X post, you move on with your life.

And I think what's happening is that intelligence, which is a really fuzzy thing, is partly about concentration. You can't really be smart if you can't concentrate on an idea for a long time to see all of its little nooks and crannies. I think that smartphones are basically taking a wrecking ball to our concentration.

And I think what's happening is that intelligence, which is a really fuzzy thing, is partly about concentration. You can't really be smart if you can't concentrate on an idea for a long time to see all of its little nooks and crannies. I think that smartphones are basically taking a wrecking ball to our concentration.

And I think what's happening is that intelligence, which is a really fuzzy thing, is partly about concentration. You can't really be smart if you can't concentrate on an idea for a long time to see all of its little nooks and crannies. I think that smartphones are basically taking a wrecking ball to our concentration.

And as a result, I think we're going to find over the next few years of studies that average intelligence around the world is actually in clear decline. Now, here's where I think it gets even weirder. AI is coming. AI is really smart, and this world in which our machines are getting exponentially smarter while we're getting linearly dumber is a weird future to be moving into.

And as a result, I think we're going to find over the next few years of studies that average intelligence around the world is actually in clear decline. Now, here's where I think it gets even weirder. AI is coming. AI is really smart, and this world in which our machines are getting exponentially smarter while we're getting linearly dumber is a weird future to be moving into.

And as a result, I think we're going to find over the next few years of studies that average intelligence around the world is actually in clear decline. Now, here's where I think it gets even weirder. AI is coming. AI is really smart, and this world in which our machines are getting exponentially smarter while we're getting linearly dumber is a weird future to be moving into.

And I think what we're going to see at the level of students and at the level of young employees and even just overall adults is there's gonna be a major schism in how people use AI. It's some people will use AI to consume information, to make thinking easier, and some people will use AI to do deep research.

And I think what we're going to see at the level of students and at the level of young employees and even just overall adults is there's gonna be a major schism in how people use AI. It's some people will use AI to consume information, to make thinking easier, and some people will use AI to do deep research.

And I think what we're going to see at the level of students and at the level of young employees and even just overall adults is there's gonna be a major schism in how people use AI. It's some people will use AI to consume information, to make thinking easier, and some people will use AI to do deep research.

If you, Bill, wanted to ask ChatGPT, which has this function called Deep Research, where it can write like 10, 20-page papers based on a prompt that you give it, Give me all the information about the smartest physiology of endurance among professional athletes.

If you, Bill, wanted to ask ChatGPT, which has this function called Deep Research, where it can write like 10, 20-page papers based on a prompt that you give it, Give me all the information about the smartest physiology of endurance among professional athletes.

If you, Bill, wanted to ask ChatGPT, which has this function called Deep Research, where it can write like 10, 20-page papers based on a prompt that you give it, Give me all the information about the smartest physiology of endurance among professional athletes.

What should we be looking at if we're trying to predict 20-year careers for basketball players, whether it's shoulder physiology or how knees fit together or overall body type? And it can give you a list that is annotated with citations that makes you smarter about how to be, not just body language doctor, but the Bill Simmons that's trying to predict the next great hidden gem.

What should we be looking at if we're trying to predict 20-year careers for basketball players, whether it's shoulder physiology or how knees fit together or overall body type? And it can give you a list that is annotated with citations that makes you smarter about how to be, not just body language doctor, but the Bill Simmons that's trying to predict the next great hidden gem.

What should we be looking at if we're trying to predict 20-year careers for basketball players, whether it's shoulder physiology or how knees fit together or overall body type? And it can give you a list that is annotated with citations that makes you smarter about how to be, not just body language doctor, but the Bill Simmons that's trying to predict the next great hidden gem.

Some people are gonna use AI. to consume, but some people are going to use it as a tool. And so not only are smartphones going to make us literally dumber, I think we're also going to see intelligence inequality grow as AI increases the return to curiosity, while at the same time, it accelerates the decline in deep thinking among a huge group of people.

Some people are gonna use AI. to consume, but some people are going to use it as a tool. And so not only are smartphones going to make us literally dumber, I think we're also going to see intelligence inequality grow as AI increases the return to curiosity, while at the same time, it accelerates the decline in deep thinking among a huge group of people.

Some people are gonna use AI. to consume, but some people are going to use it as a tool. And so not only are smartphones going to make us literally dumber, I think we're also going to see intelligence inequality grow as AI increases the return to curiosity, while at the same time, it accelerates the decline in deep thinking among a huge group of people.

Yeah. I want to be careful when I make these critiques because it's such a familiar critique. Basically, every generation, when I was doing research for this podcast, The End of Reading, every generation accuses young people of using whatever communication technology is available to them for destroying their brain. What's different is This is so important.