AI providers may reframe intelligence from a cultivated ability to a metered service.

When thinking becomes a paid convenience, the habits that build judgment may weaken.

The risk isn’t wrong answers; it’s forgetting how to think before we prompt.

I recently came across a clip of Sam Altman on X describing a future in which intelligence becomes a utility that can be sold like electricity or water on a meter. To me, it was a striking comment, and I understand the business logic behind it. AI will almost certainly become embedded in everyday life. from business to aspects of our daily living. But the phrase really stopped me as it seems to capture something larger than a commercial pricing model. It suggested a shift in how we may soon begin to understand intelligence itself less as a human capacity to be cultivated than as an external service to be accessed.

Let's start here. Historically, intelligence has been tied to the person. We develop it through our effort and lived experiences. And while it may be shaped by talent and opportunity, it still feels deeply attached to the individual self. What's changing now is how AI assists cognition. It feels like, at least to me, that the language around AI is beginning to reposition intelligence as something purchasable on........

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