How Interacting With AI is Influencing (and Enhancing) the Way We Think

I’ve spent the past twelve months working alongside experts from various fields, calling on their knowledge and capabilities around the clock. They’ve helped me with research, gamification, code fixing, planning, brainstorming, and countless other personal and work-related tasks.

Of course, the experts I’m referring to are the AI assistants that have allowed me to be more productive, pursue new passion projects, and help others. ChatGPT, Claude, DALL-E, Midjourney…..the list goes on.

What I didn’t realize initially is that in addition to boosting my productivity, my interactions with these AI assistants were enhancing my cognitive abilities in a profound and deeper way than I could have imagined. By recognizing and optimizing these interactions for cognitive growth, the benefits can have a ripple effect across various aspects of my life.

Do you remember the first time you chatted with an AI assistant? It was probably one of the first things that popped into your head like “What’s the tallest mountain in the world?” or “Tell me a story.” Most initial interactions are pretty straightforward and kind of mundane. But as you became more familiar with their capabilities, your requests evolved into something more complex—like asking for an in-depth analysis, creative brainstorming, or code debugging.

To elicit more comprehensive and insightful responses, you started structuring your prompts more clearly, adding relevant context, and refining them based on the AI’s responses—you were prompt engineering. For example, a prompt that started as a simple question about some historical event can evolve, becoming a request for an analysis of the economic, social, and political repercussions of that event on modern society.

If you’re like me, you probably have a personal library of refined, go-to prompts for a multitude of tasks.

What you may not have realized is that this process was subtly altering the way you think. Each carefully engineered prompt was also a mental exercise, challenging you to think more structurally and logically. This training in clarity and precision has sharpened your ability to sift through ambiguity, frame questions with nuanced context, and predict a range of possible interpretations.

Consider this: every time you refine a prompt because the AI’s response isn’t quite right, you are practicing a form of cognitive flexibility. This feedback loop of thinking, reframing, and adapting is essentially a cognitive dojo that develops a mindset of continual growth.

As we continue to interact with AI, it’s becoming increasingly clear that this technology is enhancing our core cognitive abilities and influencing how we communicate.

But to me, one of the most profound impacts might just be on our capacity for empathy. Because if we want to effectively communicate with AI, we have to step outside of our normal, ‘human-centric’ perspective and consider how an algorithm might interpret our instructions. This is a form of cognitive empathy, where we try to understand how an artificial ‘mind’ will think. There have been numerous studies on the benefits of practicing cognitive empathy. Researchers have found that it enriches personal growth, enhances interpersonal relationships, and contributes to a more compassionate and understanding society. It’s a skill that, when practiced regularly, can have profound effects on both individual and collective levels.

Learning to Communicate with Clarity and Precision

Have you ever asked a virtual assistant like Siri or Alexa for something, only to get a confusing or completely unrelated response? Sometimes it’s funny, most of the time it’s just annoying, but it highlights a key lesson when interacting with AI: ambiguous language can significantly hinder effective communication. It teaches us the indispensable skill of expressing ourselves with clarity and precision.

Crafting an effective prompt for AI presents the same challenge: any ambiguity can cause the the algorithm to misinterpret your intent. Vague words, a lack of context, or sentences overloaded with unnecessary details can lead the AI astray. To trigger accurate and relevant responses, we learn write prompts with focused clarity, removing any redundancy or verbosity.

This quest for precise and unambiguous communication extends well beyond prompt efficiency. It nurtures a critical skill that can be applied to other areas of life and work. In professional settings, for example, sloppy or vague language can derail projects, cause misunderstandings, and undermine credibility. Attorneys know the critical importance of airtight, unambiguous contractual language. Physicians must communicate treatment plans with absolute precision to ensure proper patient care.

By continuously striving for semantic precision in our AI prompts, we become more aware of ambiguities and unnecessary details in our speech, learn to choose our words more carefully, and frame our thoughts and context with greater clarity. These skills are invaluable, enhancing our personal, professional, and intellectual lives. Especially in today’s world, with remote work, global teams, and the prevailing political climate, the ability to convey clear, unambiguous meaning is more critical than ever.

So, the next time an AI assistant misinterprets your request, don’t just rephrase it—take a moment to reflect on how you can eliminate ambiguity from your language. Look at these interactions as opportunities to practice a skill that enhances the accuracy and credibility of your communication in all facets of life.

Structured Thinking and Problem Solving

At first glance, writing a prompt for an AI assistant might seem pretty straightforward—just type or say what you’re thinking and you’ll get the answer, right? But when you think about it, what you’re actually doing is sharpening your critical thinking and problem-solving skills.

Recent research underscores the importance of cognitive engagement in AI interactions. Researchers emphasize that there’s a distinction between passive engagement—simply following AI-generated recommendations—and deeper forms of engagement that involve critically examining these recommendations. This higher level of cognitive engagement is linked to improved decision-making and learning outcomes. It suggests that when we actively refine our prompts and thoughtfully consider the AI’s response, we’re improving the prompt while enhancing our overall cognitive capabilities.

When you start to articulate a thought or query for an AI prompt, it’s common to start with a jumble of ideas, pieces of context, and peripheral details. The challenge lies in sifting through this mental clutter to extract only the essential elements, like separating the wheat from the chaff. Then we logically organize and sequence the key points until we think the AI can understand them. This requires arranging scattered thoughts into a coherent flow, connecting them with appropriate context and transitions. Engaging in this constant reviewing and restructuring of how we frame our thoughts mimics a rigorous mental workout.

Mastering the skill of deconstructing a concept into its fundamental components, distinguishing critical details from distractions, and reassembling everything into a structured, logical narrative is invaluable. It’s a skill that’s significant in any environment, whether you’re an engineer diagnosing a system issue, a detective solving a case, or a policymaker addressing complex legislation.

Even in our personal lives, structured thinking and problem-solving are equally essential for making sense of stressful situations, resolving interpersonal conflicts, or managing the ever-increasing stream of information. Learning to organize your thoughts from a jumbled mass into a clear sequence provides a cognitive framework for tackling complexity.

Crafting AI prompts provides a unique challenge, especially when the AI’s response falls short of your expectations. In those instances, you have to reassess your approach, identify any assumptions and oversights, reframe your query, and iterate. This feedback loop strengthens self-reflection and cognitive flexibility.

As you can see, the process of prompt engineering is surprisingly beneficial. It can cultivate our ability to communicate ideas coherently in professional presentations, articulate well-reasoned arguments in debates, or de-escalate and reframe conflicts in personal relationships.

What might seem like simple interactions with an AI can subtly be enhancing the critical cognitive abilities we use in professional environments, academic research, conflict resolution, and beyond.

Adaptability and Code-Switching

In our complex and interconnected world, the ability to adapt our communication style for different circumstances or audiences is an extremely useful skill. When we communicate with other people, we instinctively adjust our language, tone, diction, and framing based on the situation—a process known as “code-switching.” Whether we’re talking with close friends or professional colleagues, or explaining concepts to children versus academic peers, this flexible modulation is the key to effective communication in any situation.

Interestingly, our interactions with different AI assistants like ChatGPT, Claude, and Alexa are unique opportunities to practice code-switching. However, these types of assistants are just the tip of the iceberg. There are plenty of other AI applications that require us to adapt our communication techniques even further.

For instance, while ChatGPT may excel in analyzing formatted code and structured queries, Alexa may be better suited for natural, conversational language for routine tasks. Claude might be more adept at handling abstract or creative prompts. Meanwhile, newer AI tools, such as those embedded in smart home devices, healthcare diagnostics, and educational software, each come with their unique sets of linguistic capabilities, knowledge bases, and interpretation patterns. Engaging with AI in a healthcare app, for example, demands precision and clarity due to the high stakes involved, while an educational AI might require a balance between simplicity for understanding and complexity for challenging the student.

By interacting with a wide array of AI technologies, from smart car navigation systems that require concise, direct commands, to sophisticated machine learning models with predictive analysis capabilities like finance or weather forecasting, we’re learning how to communicate more effectively with machines. But we’re also enhancing our ability to adjust our communication style based on the context and audience, be it human or artificial. This variety of AI interactions trains us to be more versatile communicators, capable of adapting our language, tone, and style to meet the needs of any audience or technology.

Ultimately, this adaptability extends beyond our choice of language. It involves framing our messages through the lens of our audience’s perspective, employing a form of applied empathy to anticipate how different groups will interpret and contextualize our message. This is an incredibly valuable skill, not only for interpreting the nuances of AI interactions but also in bridging the divides of culture, profession, age, and personal experience in human communication.

The Effects are as Varied as They Are Personal

While the potential impacts of AI interactions on human cognition and communication are fascinating, it’s important to acknowledge that these effects are different for each individual. Our relationships and experiences with AI are deeply personal, influenced by any number of factors, and can lead to a broad range of cognitive impacts.

For many, the act of interacting with AI unlocks profound enhancements in structured thinking, communication clarity, and general problem-solving abilities. The constant refinement of prompts fosters a habit of clear articulation and instills a mindset geared towards continual improvement through self-evaluation.

For these individuals, their engagement with AI resembles a personal cognitive dojo, and prompt crafting is a way to exercise their mental faculties. These mental workouts enhance their ability to focus on relevant details, organize thoughts logically, and anticipate multiple interpretations. The benefits of this process can have a ripple effect on their personal and professional lives, offering tangible improvements in how they articulate and solve problems.

Conversely, there are some whose experiences with AI don’t yield such overt cognitive benefits. They might interact with AI for basic tasks, like conducting web searches or setting reminders, which may not challenge their cognitive skills as strongly. Or maybe they’re more tactile or visual learners, making the abstract process of crafting prompts less directly beneficial. For these folks, the cognitive enhancements from interacting with AI might be more nuanced and less immediately apparent.

Moreover, the nature of the tasks for which they engage AI can influence the level of cognitive exercise involved. Simple, direct queries offer fewer opportunities for deep cognitive engagement than more complex, creative, or abstract tasks that challenge an AI’s capabilities and require inventive prompting.

Factors such as age, educational background, profession, and personal inclination toward AI technologies may also impact the extent to which AI interactions contribute to cognitive development. Those with backgrounds in disciplines that require sharp logic and precise communication may find it easier to integrate those skills into their AI engagements, and reap greater cognitive benefits as a result.

Understanding the individual effects of AI underscores the personalized nature of the technology’s impact on cognition. It invites us to explore and optimize our own interactions with AI, being mindful of the unique impacts on our own cognitive development.

Embracing the Cognitive Journey with AI

The effects of our AI interactions on core cognitive abilities like structured thinking, communication clarity, and adaptive problem-solving is both fascinating and empowering. However, as you have seen, the extent of these impacts can be very different for each individual based on factors like learning style, professional background, or personal inclination.

This variation isn’t necessarily a limitation. It’s just a reminder that our relationship with this technology is deeply personal. By being mindful of how we engage with AI, we can optimize the experience to foster growth in areas most valuable to us as individuals.

For those who feel they are already experiencing some cognitive benefits from engaging with AI, keep honing your skills by taking on increasingly complex challenges. Push the boundaries of AI’s capabilities through inventive, iterative prompting to strengthen your abilities in areas like abstraction, creativity, and dealing with ambiguity. Find opportunities to apply your enhanced structured thinking in creative or academic writing, professional presentations, or passion projects.

If you haven’t felt any profound cognitive shifts through your interactions with AI, don’t be dissuaded. Experiment with different AI tools and engagement styles to discover what resonates best with your learning preferences. For instance, those with more visual cognitive styles could try prompting AI tools like Craiyon, Stable Diffusion or Dall-E to generate visualizations, diagrams or images. Auditory learners may benefit from AI audio generation platforms like ElevenLabs or Murf. Those inclined towards video could explore AI video creation and editing tools like Synthesia or Runway. Hands-on learners might find coding AI models using frameworks like TensorFlow, PyTorch or fast.ai beneficial to their cognitive growth.

Ultimately, the key is to approach our relationship with AI as active participants in an ongoing journey of cognitive development. Be mindful of the impacts, however subtle, that these interactions have on your thinking patterns. Identify areas you’d like to strengthen and thoughtfully construct your experiences with AI to facilitate that growth.

As with any practiced discipline, whether it’s playing the guitar or throwing a football, you are training specific cognitive abilities. Our engagements with AI can do the same for us, if we approach them that way. Through cognitive cross-training with AI, we can unlock new depths of structured thinking, communication, and creative problem-solving— competencies that will serve us well in this increasingly complex world.