Autopilot kills skills

In 2013 the FAA had to formally ask airlines to LET PILOTS FLY THE PLANE. But it didn't take.

Autopilot was working beautifully. So beautifully that manual handling errors were climbing because, shocker, when pilots don’t fly planes they forget how to fly planes. So the agency issued “Safety Alert for Operators 13002.” Four thrilling, non-binding pages begging pilots to take the stick.

Did it work? Nnnnope.
So four years later they sent another memo.

Same thing with doctors: AI polyp detection genuinely works. It catches things people miss. Researchers followed 19 experienced endoscopists in Poland. When the AI was switched off, the doctors’ detection rates fell from 28.4% to 22.4% in three months. Gastroenterologists only spotted the trend because they count every doctor's detection rate. Most fields are forgetting how to fly…while flying blind.

Then there's Go, which should have been the worst case of all.

In 2016 AlphaGo totally smoked Lee Sedol, 4-1. When Go engines went open source, 2,500 years of theory evaporated in 18 months.

But then, the humans got better. Researchers scored 5.8M professional Go moves over 71 years. They found Go pros’ (the pro players, not the cameras) stats were basically flat from 1950 to 2016. Then, when Go engines appeared, player’s scores shot higher and never came back down. 

Their secret? Players train with AI every day, learning novel moves, but they’re BANNED from touching it in a match. Phones confiscated, cameras on the table, one teenager suspended for eight years after 73% of her moves matched the engine’s.

Train with the machine.
Game without it.

We all have a short list of things it would be malpractice to miss unassisted.
Those are the things that we need to game with our phones confiscated.

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Sources:
Safety Alert for Operators 13002: Manual Flight Operations, Federal Aviation Administration, Jan 2013

Safety Alert for Operators 17007: Manual Flight Operations Proficiency, Federal Aviation Administration, 2017

Endoscopist deskilling risk after exposure to artificial intelligence in colonoscopy: a multicentre, observational study, Budzyń et al, Aug 2025

Superhuman artificial intelligence can improve human decision-making by increasing novelty, Shin et al, Mar 2023

China Bans Teenage Go Player for Using AI to Cheat, Sixth Tone, Feb 2025

How AI turned the ancient Chinese sport of Go upside down, CNN, Mar 2023