The big idea: Will AI make us stupid?

There may be an unexpected upside to machines taking on more of our mental tasks

Modern historians count 1967 as an especially busy year: the six‑day war, the summer of love, Sgt Pepper, the first recorded deaths of American astronauts, the founding of the suburban utopia of Milton Keynes. And also, half-forgotten in the crush, perhaps the most consequential event of all: the invention of the first device ever that permitted us to henceforward stop using a part of …

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