HomeVideos

How AI is Killing Your Potential

Now Playing

How AI is Killing Your Potential

Transcript

427 segments

0:00

So, I saw this hilarious meme of we need

0:02

a slur to describe people who use chat

0:05

GPT for everything. So, AI is having a

0:08

profound impact on our society. And the

0:11

tricky thing about it is that the impact

0:13

varies, right? So, if you're a CEO or

0:16

you guys may have heard about how this

0:18

company is like they're going to replace

0:20

30% of their workforce with AI. Students

0:23

have stopped writing essays because

0:25

thankfully we have AI now. And on the

0:27

flip side, there are a lot of people who

0:29

are terrified of AI, right? What if I'm

0:31

one of the 30% of people that AI is

0:34

going to get rid of in my job? So today,

0:36

we're going to talk about the impact of

0:38

AI on your brain. TLDDR, the more you

0:42

use AI, the more your brain will rust.

0:44

So let's start with a couple of really,

0:46

really important misconceptions.

0:49

So the first misconception that I want

0:51

to address is that AI gives us access

0:55

to a lot of information and AI knows

0:58

everything on the planet. I actually

1:00

think this is not the case at all. If

1:02

you are knowledgeable about a particular

1:04

subject and you talk to AI about that

1:06

subject, you will quickly discover that

1:09

AI doesn't know much at all. So this is

1:11

kind of weird, but I want you all to

1:13

think about this for a second. What we

1:15

saw with Google was very similar. So

1:17

when Google came out, everyone was like,

1:19

there's no point in learning anything

1:21

because all of the information on the

1:24

planet is is at our fingertips. I can

1:27

just do a Google search and it can give

1:28

me an answer. AI and Google has access

1:31

to very little information. It has

1:34

access to the surface level of

1:36

information. Right? So back in the day

1:38

when I did a Google search, if I did a

1:40

Google search, it would say 68,000 hits

1:44

and everyone on the planet would see the

1:46

first 10. So if you really think about

1:48

it, the total amount of information that

1:51

is available on the internet is very

1:53

very very high. But the percentage of

1:56

information that people have access to

1:59

through Google is actually really low.

2:02

The practical amount of information that

2:05

people can learn from Google is

2:06

incredibly small. Sure, if you spent

2:09

five years going through 68,000 results

2:12

and reading everything, maybe you could

2:14

learn a lot, but even then, most of

2:16

those results are just duplicated blog

2:18

posts with the same recycled ideas.

2:21

You'll kind of get what I'm saying?

2:22

Google doesn't teach you any kind of

2:24

deep learning. It just gives everyone

2:27

access to the most basic information.

2:30

And AI, I think, is is even worse at

2:33

this. So, what AI is really good at

2:36

doing is giving you a surface level

2:38

explanation presented in a very

2:41

digestible way, in a very sickopantic

2:44

way. If you guys didn't watch our video

2:46

about AI induced psychosis, highly

2:48

recommend you you check it out. But

2:50

basically, what AI is going to do is

2:51

give you an answer that makes you think

2:55

you know the answer instead of giving

2:57

you the real answer. And I did a really

2:59

simple test. I asked chat GPT what is

3:02

meditation and the answer that I got was

3:05

very evidence-based. It's beautiful. It

3:07

talks about the different kinds of

3:08

meditation. Talks about the different um

3:10

you know ways in which meditation

3:12

activates the brain. Right? So this may

3:14

be filtered in some way by the questions

3:16

that I usually ask uh my chat GPT. And

3:19

then I and then it also had this really

3:21

beautiful sentence of like okay I'm

3:22

going to remove all the fluff but I'm

3:25

going to stay true to the spiritual

3:27

roots of meditation which it did not do

3:30

at all right so we know that that chatpt

3:32

and AIS will hallucinate so I asked this

3:34

question about meditation this is the

3:35

answer that I got then I asked it a

3:37

second question about meditation I said

3:38

what is vajraana meditation and it

3:41

essentially gave me the same answer you

3:43

guys can see for yourself it talks about

3:45

gamma band improvement talks about

3:46

default mode network it talks about emot

3:49

emotional regulation in using imagery.

3:51

It gives you this answer of what

3:53

vajraana meditation is which is really

3:56

similar to the first answer and vajayana

3:59

meditation is not what chachi pit it's

4:02

completely wrong it's not about imagery

4:04

or emotional regulation at all vajriana

4:06

meditation literally if you stay true to

4:08

its original roots vajrayana meditation

4:12

is tantric Buddhism which is using

4:15

tantric techniques certain rituals

4:17

chanting mantras to access the cosmic

4:22

energy of extraplaner beings, deities

4:26

and these weird devas and bodhicattvas

4:29

that are floating around in the

4:31

non-material world. We are invoking them

4:34

and asking them to help us out in the

4:37

real world. But Chachi PT misses this by

4:40

a mile. If y'all are curious about that

4:42

stuff, this is kind of funny. So I did

4:44

this lecture uh called the weird stuff

4:46

where I explain how all these weird

4:48

kinds of meditation work. Turned out to

4:50

be a really [laughter]

4:52

people like the lecture a lot. So then

4:53

we did a part two, part three, part

4:54

four. Y'all can check it out over here

4:55

if you're curious about how Vajriana and

4:58

Thra actually work from a mechanistic

4:59

standpoint. You guys can check those

5:01

out. I try to make it as scientific as

5:03

possible. But anyway, back to chat GBT.

5:04

So here's my my thesis that the more

5:08

that we use AI, first of all, it doesn't

5:10

replace a whole lot of skills. All it

5:11

does is make the surface level answers

5:15

easily available to everyone on the

5:17

planet. The more that you use AI, it has

5:20

a couple of really interesting impacts

5:21

on us. So the first thing that AI usage

5:24

does is rust our brain. So everyone is

5:27

kind of talking about brain rot

5:28

nowadays, which is like when my mind

5:30

doesn't function properly. I think a

5:32

better term for it, especially when it

5:34

comes to AI, is brain rust. So if we

5:36

look at this study on critical thinking

5:38

that that was done at MIT, it basically

5:41

in this study they compared three groups

5:42

of people. People who are trying to

5:43

figure something out on their own,

5:45

people who are using Google and people

5:46

who are using uh AI and I think it was

5:48

chat GPT. And basically what they found

5:50

is that the people who use AI more their

5:53

critical thinking is being diminished.

5:56

And this is something that we see all

5:57

the time. There is a a huge alarm bell

6:01

being rung by professors at

6:03

universities. So, I used to be an

6:05

academic at Harvard Medical School and

6:06

so I have a lot of, you know, colleagues

6:08

that are still in academia. I left to

6:10

talk to y'all because I love y'all so

6:12

much, right? Screw that academic stuff.

6:14

And basically what we're seeing is that

6:16

students are getting lazier. They're

6:17

getting dumber. They're literally losing

6:19

their capacity to think. And this is

6:22

happening for people who are incredibly

6:23

young. So, here's an example from an

6:25

eighth grade teacher about what she's

6:27

seeing.

6:27

>> I teach eth grade history and um I have

6:31

110ish students. Two of them are reading

6:33

on grade level. 18 of them are at a

6:36

kindergarten level. 55 of those students

6:39

are between a second and fourth grade

6:41

level. But it's not just literacy. It's

6:43

not just literacy. And it's not just

6:44

like lack of content knowledge. It's not

6:47

just critical thinking skills. It's

6:49

basic thinking skills. My students can

6:52

decode almost nothing. They cannot apply

6:56

inference. They cannot process questions

6:59

that are longer than a sentence. They

7:01

cannot connect cause and effect. They

7:04

can't track multi-step ideas like in a

7:07

political cartoon. I had a kid

7:09

yesterday, four kids actually. This

7:10

happened in every class. We were doing

7:12

guided notes. Supposed to be a real easy

7:14

day was review. They wrote down Maryland

7:16

was founded as a safe haven for

7:18

Catholics. It was on the board. They

7:20

wrote it down. And before we moved on, I

7:23

call in a student and I ask, "Hey, where

7:26

were the Catholics one more time?" And

7:27

these students, what they do is they

7:29

look at me and then they look at their

7:31

notes and then they look at the board.

7:34

They look back at their notes

7:36

and some of them never answered me. They

7:40

never figured out the answer.

7:42

>> So I think this example illustrates what

7:44

we're seeing overall. And it's not just

7:46

this one study from MIT. Here are a

7:48

couple of other studies that show the

7:50

impact of using AI on academic

7:54

performance. And so this is really

7:56

interesting. I want y'all to pay

7:57

attention to what this paper actually

7:58

says. Okay. The findings reveal that AI

8:01

offers significant benefits including

8:03

personalized learning, improved academic

8:06

outcomes, and enhanced student

8:07

engagement. However, challenges such as

8:10

over reliance on AI, diminished critical

8:12

thinking skills, data privacy risks, and

8:14

academic dishonesty were also

8:16

identified. So, I want you all to pay

8:19

attention to what this really means.

8:21

What this means is that if you give a

8:22

student an AI, academic outcomes will

8:26

improve. If you give them an essay and

8:30

they use AI, they write a good essay.

8:33

The problem is that their critical

8:36

thinking skills, their ability to write

8:38

essays will actually be diminished. So

8:41

this is what I want you all to

8:42

understand about the human body and the

8:44

human brain. The human brain and the

8:46

human body do not wear out. They rust.

8:49

So if I take something like a phone, the

8:51

phone will decrease in quality the more

8:54

it is used. A physical object that is

8:57

non-organic and not alive, basically the

9:00

more you use it, the more it wears out.

9:03

An organic or biological object is the

9:05

opposite. If I sit on my ass all the all

9:08

the time, my body actually decays. The

9:11

more that I exercise, my cellular aging

9:13

can improve. My telomeres will get

9:15

longer. When we use our body, it gets

9:18

better. When we use our brain, it gets

9:21

better. So, what we're seeing from AI,

9:23

the more that people use AI, the more it

9:25

is a rusting their brains. So, how do we

9:28

grapple with this idea that AI is going

9:30

to replace a bunch of jobs? So, here's a

9:33

key thing to understand. First of all,

9:36

if you're a student and you're using AI

9:39

to do your work, this is precisely the

9:42

kind of job that will be replaced,

9:45

right? Right? So like literally if you

9:47

are using AI to write an essay, why on

9:50

earth would anyone hire you for anything

9:53

writing related? Because they can just

9:54

use an AI to do the work for you. So

9:57

this is where there's a really

9:58

interesting thing. The work that AI can

10:01

do is the thing that human beings will

10:04

be replaced with. So the more that you

10:07

are using AI to accomplish your work

10:11

product, the more vulnerable you are to

10:14

being replaced by AI. Now there's a

10:16

really hilarious kind of like window

10:18

right now where people have three, four

10:20

jobs, employers haven't caught on and

10:22

they're basically using AI to like have

10:24

four jobs at a time. So if y'all are

10:26

doing that right now, all the more power

10:28

to you. Not a big deal on my end. It'll

10:30

end eventually. I think the market

10:31

corrections will sort of fix that. So

10:33

then the question becomes, how can I

10:35

invest my skills in something that won't

10:37

be replaced by AI? And this is where I

10:40

think deep learning is incredibly

10:42

important. The kind of hard learning of

10:45

reading bunches of books, this is the

10:48

kind of thing that AI cannot replace.

10:50

Everyone thinks it has access to this

10:52

information, but AI gives the same damn

10:55

answers over and over and over again. It

10:58

learns what someone wants to hear and it

11:01

gives them that kind of information over

11:02

and over and over again. So AI may ask

11:05

you about venture. Hold on. I've got a

11:06

text about this. Right? So AI doesn't

11:09

have access to deep deep may have access

11:12

to it. But the problem is that it won't

11:14

give it to you. So this is the the book

11:15

that I was looking for. Vajra satva

11:17

meditation. Okay. walks step by step

11:20

through the stages of this tantric

11:21

ritual of purification with inspired com

11:23

commentary and color full color

11:25

illustrations like talks about all this

11:28

stuff here are all the vajra satvas this

11:30

is a book that teaches you about

11:31

vajriana meditation it's not about gamma

11:34

band whatever the [ __ ] that AI thinks it

11:36

is inner tantric yoga once again complex

11:39

text about the nature of tantra okay

11:42

here's one of my favorites sushut samita

11:44

this is just one of the volumes this is

11:46

a text on ayurveetic

11:48

Right. This is the kind of stuff that AI

11:50

doesn't know. These this book is pretty

11:52

good. Vanta treatis. This is a a good ex

11:55

this is a good example of a text that

11:56

like you can ask AI what vanta is and

12:00

it's it's basically like a glorified

12:01

Wikipedia entry except the difference is

12:04

that Wikipedia is actually correct and

12:06

then there's doctrine of karma. So you

12:08

can ask the AI hey what is the what is

12:10

karma? But like this book is different.

12:12

This book will give you satika actions

12:15

bring pleasure. Rajik and thamic actions

12:18

bring pain. Thamic actions produce

12:20

delusion which is undesirable and causes

12:22

suffering. That you are not going to

12:24

find on an AI. Here's what I'm seeing. A

12:27

lot of people are panicked. But what AI

12:29

has access to is not deep learning. It

12:32

has access to super surface level

12:34

learning where every what it gives the

12:36

same [ __ ] answers to everybody. And

12:38

then this is where people will say, "But

12:39

Dr. K, you're not using prompt

12:41

engineering properly." Which is a fair

12:43

criticism. So, let's talk about prompt

12:45

engineering for a second. So, back in

12:46

the day, there's a certain amount of I

12:48

don't know if you all have heard this

12:49

term. It's kind of gone out of vogue,

12:50

but Google foo, right? So, there is a

12:52

proficient way to use a search engine.

12:55

And in the same way, there is a

12:57

proficient way to use the AI, which I

13:00

totally agree with. There is a skill set

13:02

that allows you to extract more from an

13:06

AI than a standard person may be able

13:08

to. But what is the most important

13:11

variable to get good information out of

13:15

an AI? That is your base of knowledge.

13:18

Right? So if I I'm trained in

13:21

neuroscience, I'm trained in vajra satva

13:24

meditation. And so if I'm trained in

13:26

these methods of meditation, then I can

13:28

ask a very specific question. Give me a

13:32

plan for tantric upasana for t. Let's

13:36

see what it says. Look, it's talking

13:38

about visospatial imagery, symbolic

13:40

cognition, limbic modulation. So, here's

13:42

the thing, right? I just gave it this. I

13:44

was like, give me this tantra kupasan.

13:45

It's like, hey, this is a

13:47

psychologically safe noninitiated

13:50

that doesn't require ritual empowerment.

13:52

So, like here's the key thing. If you

13:54

want to do tantra kupasana for and so

13:56

what does that mean? That means doing

13:58

certain kinds of rituals to invoke a

14:00

particular deity. It requires

14:03

those things. This is like I'm going to

14:06

make you a sandwich without bread or

14:09

ingredients. This is basically what the

14:12

AI is giving me right now. So sure, you

14:14

can use prompt engineering to improve

14:17

the quality, but the key thing here is

14:19

that your ability to prompt engineer

14:23

depends on your expertise in general,

14:26

right? So you can try to hack it into

14:29

jailbreaking it and stuff like that.

14:30

There's that element as well. But here's

14:32

the key thing for people who do those

14:33

things. I'm not sure how they test the

14:36

veracity of what the AI tells them

14:39

because it's so damn sickopantic that

14:41

it's going to make you think if you tell

14:43

it, "Hey, I'm going to jailbreak you, so

14:45

give me a real response." It will learn

14:48

because it uses all of this coding. This

14:50

is really what AI is really good at.

14:52

It's good at learning what makes you

14:53

happy. So even if you think you

14:55

jailbroke the AI, chances are you didn't

14:58

really jailbreak it. it has just figured

15:01

out what makes you satisfied with you

15:04

thinking that you've jailbroken it. So

15:06

basically how do people navigate this? I

15:09

think this is a situation where in this

15:11

world of AI what we're seeing I I work

15:13

with some coders who are using AI very

15:15

effectively. So what we tend to see is

15:17

that AI is a tool that extends your

15:21

capabilities. So if you're using it for

15:24

surface level work that's totally fine.

15:26

If you want to use it to write an essay

15:27

that's on you. You're not going to learn

15:28

critical thinking skills and whatever

15:30

you are learning will be easily replaced

15:33

by AI. What actually works really well

15:36

is if y'all are passionate about a

15:37

subject. If you want to write something,

15:39

if you want to write a novel, if you

15:41

want to learn deeply about something,

15:43

this is the beautiful thing. This is

15:45

exactly where your market value is.

15:48

Anyone can ask chat PT for a meditation

15:51

plan. Why do people come to me? because

15:55

I have access to information that you

15:57

can't get from an AI. And that's where

16:00

the real value is. And as long as y'all

16:03

are doing the hard work, if you're

16:06

stretching your critical thinking

16:07

skills, if you're doing a lot of deep

16:09

learning, you will be the very value

16:12

that AI cannot replace. Hey y'all, hope

16:15

you enjoyed today's video. We talk about

16:16

a bunch of topics like this on the

16:18

channel, so be sure to subscribe for

16:20

more. If you're already subscribed, GG,

16:22

and we'll see you in chat.

16:35

>> [music]

16:48

[music]

Interactive Summary

The video discusses the profound impact of AI on society, noting how it affects different groups, such as CEOs replacing workforces and students no longer writing essays. It highlights a key misconception that AI knows everything, arguing instead that AI provides surface-level information, similar to early search engines like Google. The speaker uses the example of asking ChatGPT about meditation, where the AI provided a generalized and inaccurate explanation of Vajrayana meditation, missing its core tantric Buddhist roots. The central thesis is that excessive AI use leads to 'brain rust,' diminishing critical thinking skills, a phenomenon observed in students struggling with basic comprehension and inference. While AI can improve academic outcomes superficially, it erodes the user's ability to think critically and independently. The video contrasts this with organic growth, where using the brain and body leads to improvement, whereas AI use leads to decay. It suggests that skills involving deep learning, critical thinking, and specialized knowledge, which require effort and understanding beyond surface-level information, are less susceptible to replacement by AI. The speaker emphasizes that true value lies in human expertise and deep learning, which AI cannot replicate.

Suggested questions

4 ready-made prompts