A July 30, 2026 opinion piece warns that the rush to adopt AI in schools threatens to create a generation with diminished cognitive abilities, drawing a parallel to Aldous Huxley's 1932 novel *Brave New World*, where social class is determined by cognitive capacity. The author notes that while Gen X and Millennials can offload mental effort to AI and still draw on foundational skills from their pre-AI education, younger generations who have never known a world without tools like Claude or ChatGPT may lack this base. The article cites research indicating that shifting cognitive load onto AI can lead to the atrophy of core intellectual processes, including memory, concentration, and analytical skills. A recent study measuring brain activity during an essay-writing task showed that ChatGPT users had "significantly reduced cognitive engagement" compared to those relying on brain power alone. Research out of France has argued that offloading cognitive tasks to AI reduces prefrontal cortex use, leading to "cumulative cognitive debt," risking the ability to infer, summarise, and critically examine information. The piece also recalls that from the early 2010s, governments were persuaded by the novelty of tech in classrooms, such as "A laptop for every child," despite a lack of evidence and astronomical costs to schools, parents, and taxpayers.