"Nosta compared the effect to a doctor performing a colonoscopy with the aid of AI. With AI scanning alongside the clinician to help spot small polyps, the doctor gets better at the task, he said. The problem arises the next day, when the same doctor performs the procedure without the aid of AI, he said. "I have to go back to the regular way," Nosta said. "And the skill set actually falls below baseline." The danger, he said, isn't just dependency - it's regression."
"Nosta also warned that AI can distort how workers judge their own abilities - a concern shared by many academics and researchers, including Rebecca Hinds, head of the Work AI Institute and Nobel Prize-winning physicist Saul Perlmutter, who have said that AI gives the illusion of understanding, while weakening judgment. "We actually have an overinflated sense of ability through AI," said Nosta, who described the effect as "really dangerous.""
AI can boost worker productivity while undermining the underlying skills needed without the tool. Reliance on AI may produce an "AI rebound effect" where abilities fall below baseline when AI is removed. In clinical examples, AI-assisted procedures can improve detection with assistance, yet clinicians may perform worse without AI. Increased confidence from AI can create an illusion of understanding and weaken judgment. This overinflated sense of ability raises long-term risks for workers and employers as competence regresses even as perceived capability rises. Awareness of this trade-off is necessary when deploying AI in workplaces.
Read at Business Insider
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