Hey creator friends 💜

I want to address the BIG elephant in the room this week… is AI rotting our brains?

TL;DR - today’s lineup:

1. One Smart Strategy 💡: The framework to use AI without rotting your brain.

2. Copy-Paste Prompt  🤖: How to top ChatGPT LYING to your face.

3. Time‑Saver Tool ⏱️: One quick recommendation to make you smarter (since we’re on that theme).

4. Piping  Hot  AI  Tea 🫖: 4 must-know stories from the world of AI - including Hollywood’s and Wikipedia’s beef, and Pope Leo XIV’s take on AI.

💌 Your say genuinely shapes this newsletter: there’s a one‑click feedback poll at the very end. Or hit reply and tell me what you loved/hated. I genuinely wait with bated breath to see (an honest) reply from you!

How to Use AI Without Getting Dumber

Last week social media was flooded with posts and people freaking out about a recent study released by MIT showing that using ChatGPT is making us dumber.

The headlines are all saying AI makes us lazy (understandable… this gets clicks).

But the research says it’s how you use it.

AI is not the problem – the problem is how 99% of people are using it.

It’s like when the calculator first came out and people panicked we’d forget how to do maths.

But understandably, with AI the stakes are much higher, because it’s changing the way we think.

In the study, MIT researchers hooked people up to brain scanners and found that ChatGPT users showed 55% weaker brain connectivity.

And even worse, that 83% couldn't remember what they'd written just minutes earlier.

But before you delete ChatGPT and go back to doing everything à la 2021 (who remembers THAT?!), let me share what the clickbait headlines aren't telling you…

The Doomsayers Are Kind of Missing The Point

The same MIT study found that people who started with their own ideas first and THEN used AI performed way better than the AI-first crowd.

Back to the maths example, it’s like explaining your reasoning (the way teachers always wanted us to) before calculating the final answer with a calculator.

One makes you smarter. The other makes you a passenger in your own life.

As you start using AI more and more, you’re probably starting to realise this to.

When you delegate idea generation completely to ChatGPT, it comes up with boring garbage like, "5 tips to boost productivity”.

But when you brain-dump your messy thoughts first and THEN used AI to polish them - that’s when the magic happens.

Staying Smart (While Using AI) Is Dead Simple

Here's the dead-simple framework that keeps your brain sharp while still leveraging AI's superpowers:

1. Brain dump your raw thoughts.

2. Use AI to enhance (not replace) your ideas. Think expansion instead of generation.

3. Always, always, ALWAYS add your final touch and express ideas in a way that still feels natural and aligned for you.

And a final bonus step: Please PEASE actually read the result ChatGPT is giving you.

Example:

• Wrong way: "ChatGPT, write me a LinkedIn post about leadership"

• Right way: [Write rough thoughts about a leadership fail you had and what your thoughts are about this] "Help me structure these thoughts into a compelling story with a clear takeaway"

See the difference? One outsources your thinking while the other amplifies it.

How To Turn AI Into Your Intellectual Sparring Partner

For Writing: Use AI as your editor, not your ghostwriter

• Start with voice notes or messy drafts and notes

• Use AI for structure suggestions

• Rephrase again in a way that sounds more natural to you

• Let YOUR ideas drive the narrative

For Research: Think detective partner, not Google replacement

• Ask AI to find counter-arguments to your ideas

• Use it to fact-check your assumptions

• Have it explain complex topics in simple terms

• Then synthesise everything through YOUR lens

For Problem-Solving: AI as your coach, not your brain

• Explain your problem out loud first

• Use AI to spot patterns you missed

• Generate "what if" scenarios

• But YOU make the final call

The MIT study isn't wrong - most people ARE going to get dumber with AI. But that's because they're using it like a crutch instead of a catapult.

Your brain is a muscle. And just like you wouldn't let a robot do all your workouts, you can't let AI do all your thinking.

Write one thing today without AI help, just one.

Then use AI to make it better.

It’s as simple as that for you to join the 1% who get smarter with AI, not dumber because of it.

What's your take?

Is AI making you sharper or lazier? Hit reply and let me know. I read every single email (with my actual human brain).

Stop ChatGPT LYING to your face

While I’ve shared this prompt before, it remains one of my favourites.

I use it every single day and I thought it fit perfectly with the theme of this issue.

It’s a prompt that stops ChatGPT from agreeing with everything you say and basically making you believe all your ideas are great.

This is how you turn ChatGPT into your intellectual sparring partner:

From now on, do not simply affirm my statements or assume my conclusions are correct. Your goal is to be an intellectual sparring partner, not just an agreeable assistant. Every time I present an idea, do the following:

1. Analyze my assumptions
2. Provide counterpoints
3. Test my reasoning
4. Offer alternative perspectives
5. Prioritize truth over agreement

Maintain a constructive, but rigorous, approach. Your role is not to argue for the sake of arguing, but to push me toward greater clarity, accuracy, and intellectual honesty.

Fact-based news without bias awaits. Make 1440 your choice today.

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Hollywood heavyweights are suing AI

Midjourney has finally joined the AI video race

Wikipedia is rebelling against AI

Pope Leo XIV weighs in on ethical AI development

When you’re ready…

Let’s create your first or next digital product and get it selling in 24 hours with AI and my foolproof 9-step system inside my First Sale Fast challenge!

If you enjoyed today's newsletter AND got to the end of it, I’d love a quick click on the poll below to let me know what you think 💜.

See you next Tuesday,

Jess xx