Iam generally optimistic about all the ways artificial intelligence is going to make life better – scientific research, medical diagnoses, tutoring and my favourite current use, holiday planning. But it also offers a malevolent seduction: excellence without effort. It gives people the illusion that they can be good at thinking without hard work, and I’m sorry, that’s not possible.

There’s a recent study that exposes this seduction. It has a really small sample size, and it hasn’t even been peer-reviewed yet – so put in all your caveats – but it suggests something that seems intuitively true.