AI is making too many people dangerously lazy. I’m watching smart folks paste generic ChatGPT blurbs into high-stakes conversations like they’re View this email in your browser

The Weekly AI Briefing

🧑‍🏫 Latest AI thoughts, tools, and news from unburdn AI is making too many people dangerously lazy. I’m watching smart folks paste generic ChatGPT blurbs into high-stakes conversations like they’re gospel. Pretty words ≠ sound judgment. Two stories: First, a friend of mine—president of a publicly traded company—was in a heated board debate when an older gentleman on the board opened ChatGPT mid‑meeting, typed a short question with almost no context, and started re‑reading everything on the screen as if it were the most authoritative text in the world. The words were fast and pretty—and wrong. It derailed the conversation and they lost time unwinding the nonsense to get back to facts and judgment. Second, at the University of Denver we were refining the vision for alumni engagement. We had a wall of themes from a lively whiteboard session. Someone dumped those words into ChatGPT to “craft the vision statement.” It sounded better than anything any of us would’ve written on the first pass. But peel it back and the substance was missing: no priorities, no definition of success, just polished word salad. The glow of “that reads so well” froze the room, and it took deliberate effort to return to the board so our brains—and our judgment—could do the work. Over‑relying on AI is like following GPS with your brain off—when the map is wrong, you’ll drive straight off a closed bridge. Use it to suggest routes, but keep your hands on the wheel: read the signs, watch for hazards, and make the call.

Here’s the play:

-Build a ‘call‑it’ culture. When someone uses ChatGPT to think for them—reading outputs as the argument—anyone can say, “Pause: assist, don’t replace.” -Use AI as a sparring partner. Ask it to attack your argument, surface edge cases, and source alternatives—then decide. -Protect the “no‑screen” phase. 15 minutes of human thinking before any model touches the problem. PS: Keep reading for hot-takes on headlines, AI tools, and a personal story + pic How I feel when ChatGPT thinks for me… [Yep, still having too much fun with Nano Banana 🍌]

📰 AI News Worth Knowing

📉 AI just cleared CFA Level III (mock)—the essay wall is cracking. New research shows top models can pass Level III mocks, where two years ago models stalled on essays. Translation: “hard skills” are automating upward—double down on human judgment and communication. Read Here 👵👶 The AI awareness gap is widening—youth pulling ahead. Pew finds 62% of under‑30s have “heard or read a lot” about AI vs 32% of those 65+. Expect a have/have‑not dynamic inside your org: the people who learn this now will lap those who don’t. Read Here 📊 AI models nearing pro‑level on real‑world work. OpenAI’s new benchmark tests deliverables across 44 occupations (briefs, decks, spreadsheets). Early results: leading models are approaching expert quality on many tasks—parity in pockets, not everywhere yet. Watch for fast jumps. Read Here

🛠️ AI Tools You Need to Try

🧰 Unburdn’s Vault. A curated library of AI tools mapped to Crawl → Walk → Run stages. Great cheat‑sheet for leveling up your team’s stack. Explore Here.

📢 Take Action

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From the Field: 🎓 Professors Betting on Boom, Not Doom

I had an incredible opportunity this last week to run my AI workshop with the University of Denver’s business school faculty. They may have one of the hardest jobs right now because of AI’s pace. Their classrooms are full of digital‑native students who too often use AI the wrong way—letting it think and do for them instead of amplifying and augmenting themselves. We talked through concrete strategies to flip that mindset and we’ve already hit the ground running with some positive early results. During the session I gave my usual boom‑vs‑doom poll. I expected more doom given their headwinds; instead a large majority landed in the boom camp. Fascinating, because my corporate audiences tend to be closer to 50/50. Major shout‑out to these folks: they’re quickly rebuilding curricula and redesigning classroom experiences so the next generation becomes stewards of the working world—augmented thinkers, not copy‑pasters. It would be easy to take an offramp and disclaim responsibility; they’re choosing to lead. [Go Pios!] Thanks for reading. 🙏 Copyright (C) 2025 AI for the Rest of Us LLC dba Unburdn. All rights reserved. Our mailing address is: Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe