Here We Go: We Are Getting Dumber

Executive Summary 

• UK steps up the age verification game.

• A reminder that ChatGPT has no legal confidentiality.

• If you want to increase your salary, learn AI.

• Tool of the week: TheySaid

• Discussion: We are getting dumber as species.

News

 🇬🇧 U.K. Starts Enforcing Online Age Check Rules. Link

• The U.K.'s Online Safety Act took effect on Friday, requiring around 6,000 pornography websites to verify users' ages through methods like selfies or government-issued IDs to prevent children from accessing harmful content.

• Major platforms including Reddit, Bluesky, X, and Grindr have also begun implementing age verification for U.K. users, as the law extends beyond porn sites to any platform that could expose children to harmful material.

• This represents a significant shift toward normalizing online age checks globally, though privacy advocates warn it threatens online anonymity and could be circumvented through fake IDs or VPNs.

 🧠 There's No Legal Confidentiality When Using ChatGPT as a Therapist. Link

• OpenAI CEO Sam Altman revealed that users who share personal problems with ChatGPT lack the legal confidentiality protections that exist with human therapists, doctors, or lawyers, creating potential privacy risks.

• In legal proceedings, OpenAI could be compelled to produce users' intimate conversations, as evidenced by ongoing court battles with The New York Times that could require saving chats from hundreds of millions of users globally.

• The warning highlights a critical gap in AI regulation, young users—increasingly turn to ChatGPT for emotional support without understanding that their conversations lack legal privilege protection.

 💰AI is Driving Mass Layoffs in Tech, But Boosting Salaries Everywhere Else. Link

• While AI has triggered mass layoffs in the tech sector (including Microsoft's 15,000 job cuts), it's simultaneously driving salary increases of 28% or $18,000 annually for AI-skilled workers in non-tech industries.

• Job postings requiring AI skills outside of tech have surged 800% since 2022, with more than half of all AI-related jobs now appearing in fields like marketing, HR, finance, education, and manufacturing.

• The research reveals a fundamental shift where AI proficiency has become one of the most lucrative skill investments, with workers possessing multiple AI skills earning up to 43% salary premiums as companies race to integrate AI across all business functions.

AI tool of the week

TheySaid

This tool aims to generate paper survey to better understand users. It works by deploying an AI interviewer that asks an initial open-ended question. Based on the user's response, the AI then asks intelligent, real-time follow-up questions to probe for deeper insights and context. This process turns a passive survey into an active, one-on-one interview that can be conducted at scale, allowing businesses to gather more detailed and authentic feedback.

Discussion

Here We Go: Human Intelligence is Declining

Up until the end of previous century, there was a confirmed gradual increase of human intelligence, as observed by James Flynn. Roughly 3 points of IQ increase per decade. Impressive.

However, it seems that after peaking last century, growth slowed and trend already started to move in opposite direction since 1980s. As of now, we have numerous studies confirming global intelligence decline, the largest one including more than 700,000 participants.

So what's behind this trend reversal? The causes are more complex and started decades before smartphones became a thing.

Whereas the main cause is debatable, changes in educational quality are assumed as a primary driver, with teaching methods shifting toward less rigorous, process-oriented approaches such as tests.

Nutritional factors also play a role. Malnutrition during critical developmental periods can cause permanent cognitive deficits. Air pollution, particularly fine particulates crossing the blood-brain barrier, has been linked to neurodegenerative effects.

AI definitely accelerates the problem, more specifically, AI tends to affect critical thinking the most. The whole nature of using AI tool created a shift from information comprehension and knowledge to pure verification, requiring less cognitive load.

Is it how great generations and species go extinct?

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