And OpenAI Knows It
Leah Belsky wants people to stop treating ChatGPT like an answer machine. As OpenAI’s head of education, she is not warning against using it. She is warning against how it is being used.
If you are copying and pasting answers from ChatGPT without doing any thinking yourself, you are already behind. The people who rely on it to avoid effort are not getting ahead. They are just getting duller.
The bigger point Belsky makes is simple. AI is a tool. Like a calculator, it should support thinking, not replace it. And yet, most students and even many professionals are skipping the part that matters most. They are removing the mental friction. That friction is what leads to growth.
This is where the term productive struggle comes in. It is the process of actually working through ideas. Trying. Failing. Rethinking. That is how understanding forms. And it is what gets erased when AI becomes a crutch.
According to Belsky, OpenAI is now working on ways to reintroduce this struggle on purpose. Its new Study Mode is designed to ask questions back, guide users based on their level, and encourage actual comprehension. The goal is not faster answers. It is deeper thinking.
Other companies are seeing the same risk. Kira Learning, backed by Google Brain's Andrew Ng, is building similar friction into its education products. Instead of giving instant responses, it slows students down at just the right moments. Not to frustrate them. To force them to think.
There is a quiet shift happening here. AI education is moving from convenience to resistance. The best learning environments may soon be the ones that make you uncomfortable again. Because discomfort is where actual learning lives.
This is not just about schools. It is about work. Belsky says students who cannot code with AI will be at a disadvantage. But just knowing how to use tools is not enough. The people who thrive will be the ones who know how to think alongside them.
Tyler Cowen, an economics professor at George Mason University, recently pointed out the obvious. Everyone is focused on preventing cheating. But no one is asking what education should be measuring in the first place. Good grades were always a game. And it is a game AI now plays better than you.
The truth is this: AI can make you sharper. It can also make you lazy. It depends on how you use it. Use it to avoid effort and your brain will atrophy. Use it to challenge yourself and you might get smarter than you were before.