By Noel Carroll
Publication Date: 2026-01-22 17:54:00
The retirement of West Midlands Police Chief Craig Guildford is a wake-up call for those of us who use artificial intelligence (AI) tools at work and in our personal lives. Guildford lost the confidence of the Home Secretary after it emerged police had used false AI-generated evidence in their controversial decision to ban Israeli football fans from attending a match.
This is a particularly egregious example, but many people could fall victim to the same phenomenon – outsourcing the “battle” of thinking to AI.
As an expert in how new technologies are changing society and the human experience, I have observed a growing phenomenon that I and other researchers refer to as “cognitive atrophy.”
Essentially, AI replaces tasks that many people were previously unable to do themselves – thinking, writing, creating, analyzing. But if we don’t use these skills, they can decline.
We also risk things going very, very wrong. Generative AI works by predicting…
