The concern that humanity’s reliance on AI systems will stunt people’s ability to think and reason for themselves is one that AI companies should address, Anthropic co-founder Jack Clark said at a recent Aspen Institute event.
One example: Anthropic’s Claude chatbot has started asking users clarifying questions about their prompts, which Clark described as “forcing a person to engage their brain more and claim some agency back.” Future iterations of chatbots may even withhold responses until users contribute their own original ideas, he said, adding that this isn’t yet in Anthropic’s product plans.
Pushing people to think through problems can help stimulate critical thinking, but it’s unlikely users want more friction injected into the user experience.