434 — Cyborgs, centaurs and the role of choice infrastructure

It’s ‘Bring Your Paper to Work’ day at Mindtools Towers, as Ross G, Ross D and Dr Anna each take turns to share an academic study that they think has key insights for L&D professionals.

We discuss:

• The impact of AI on critical thinking, as investigated in:
  • Lee, H. P. H., Sarkar, A., Tankelevitch, L., Drosos, I., Rintel, S., Banks, R., & Wilson, N. (2025). The Impact of Generative AI on Critical Thinking: Self-Reported Reductions in Cognitive Effort and Confidence Effects From a Survey of Knowledge Workers.
• How consultants who use AI act either as ‘cyborgs’ or ‘centaurs’ in:
  • Dell'Acqua, F., McFowland III, E., Mollick, E. R., Lifshitz-Assaf, H., Kellogg, K., Rajendran, S., ... & Lakhani, K. R. (2023). Navigating the jagged technological frontier: Field experimental evidence of the effects of AI on knowledge worker productivity and quality. Harvard Business School Technology & Operations Mgt. Unit Working Paper, (24-013).
• Why we should go beyond 'choice architecture' to look at 'choice infrastructure' in:
  • Schmidt, R. (2024). A model for choice infrastructure: Looking beyond choice architecture in Behavioral Public Policy. Behavioural Public Policy, 8(3), 415-440.

During the discussion, Anna referenced our previous podcast with Erica Werneman Root, What does ‘AI literacy’ look like in organizations?

She also mentioned a blog from Ralph Losey on centaurs and cyborgs.

And we discussed Ross G's newsletter on augmentation vs upskilling.

In 'What I Learned This Week', Ross D discussed Chesteron's fence.

Anna discussed whether women can run faster than men over ultralong distances, via More or Less.

As a brief aside, apologies for the slightly worse audio on Ross G's track this episode. After 430+ episodes, he's still making mistakes.