Someone recently made a remark that stopped the conversation cold: below a certain age, you've never been lost. Because GPS has always been there.
There was a time when you printed out MapQuest directions before leaving the house, because that was the only way to access them. You planned the route in advance, took the paper with you, and figured it out if something went wrong. Before that, you walked into an AAA office with a destination in mind and asked someone to print you a map.
Now, nobody thinks twice about GPS. It's just how we navigate. And that's exactly how we need to think about AI — not as a threat to your thinking, but as a navigation system for it.
The skepticism makes sense. It comes from a real place — a desire to protect something. But here's the thing about GPS: the people who refused to use it didn't become better navigators. They just arrived later.
The only way to develop good judgment about a tool is to use it.