Cognitive debt
noun
The thinking ability you fail to build when the machine repeatedly does the difficult mental work for you. The time saved now returns later, with interest.
Also known as thinking debt
Cognitive debt is the thinking ability you fail to build when the machine repeatedly does the difficult mental work for you. The saved time feels immediate. The missing capacity appears later.
A person who asks AI to test a conclusion still brings a conclusion. A person who reaches for it before forming the question skips the part where judgement is made. Repeat that often enough and the skipped thinking compounds.
The debt is not caused by using AI. It grows when use replaces the struggle through which a person learns to frame, compare, doubt and decide. The interest is paid the first time the machine is wrong and nobody at the desk has a reference point.
Where it comes up in the sources
Works in the library that use this word. Matched on the word itself, so it is a starting point rather than a reading list.