Could ChatGPT Be a Cognitive Prosthesis?

The dream—and, for many, the nightmare—of artificial intelligence is the supercharging of our cognitive abilities with digital technology. Your brain on steroids, as some have put it. But what if the chief impact of systems like ChatGPT is not enhancing the already intelligent mind, but instead helping the least cognitively skilled move up toward the level of the average? This scenario, mooted recently by the economist and writer Tim Harford, implies that chatbots could be a kind of prosthetic, but for intelligence rather than…