AI won't become conscious, but it may already be reshaping human cognition.

The danger isn't machine experience but the slow erosion of our own.

Fluency without understanding is still just borrowed thought.

At TED2026, neuroscientist Anil Seth made a logical and persuasive case: artificial intelligence (AI) is unlikely to become conscious. Based in neuroscience, it was delivered with the kind of clarity we've come to expect in TED Talks. We see minds in machines the way we see faces in clouds. The projection is ours.

But consciousness may be the wrong thing to worry about. While we debate whether AI will ever feel, it's my sense that something is already happening to the people using it. The shift isn't in machine experience. It's in ours.

I've spent a good deal of time trying to name what AI already is, not what it will never become. The term I've coined is anti-intelligence. Now, before the reactive recoil, let's be clear that this isn't a lesser form of human thought or a failed imitation, but a completely different structure. It's the same raw material........

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