DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis has warned that artificial intelligence can either sharpen the mind or gradually dull it—depending on how individuals choose to use it. Speaking in a Thursday interview with entrepreneur Varun Mayya on the sidelines of the India AI Impact Summit, Hassabis compared AI to the internet, emphasizing that its impact depends entirely on the user. "AI is just like the internet," Hassabis said. "You can use it to learn about anything, or you can use it in ways that degrade your thinking. If you use it in a lazy way, it will make you worse at critical thinking and problem-solving. But that’s up to you as the individual. No one can help you do that." He stressed the importance of using AI thoughtfully, urging people to leverage the technology to enhance their cognitive abilities rather than replace them. According to Hassabis, the key lies in intentionality—using AI as a tool for growth, not a crutch for avoidance. Hassabis co-founded DeepMind in 2010, which Google acquired in 2014. The company merged with Google Brain in 2023 to form Google DeepMind, the research lab behind AI systems like Gemini and Nano Banana. Hassabis and DeepMind colleague John Jumper were awarded the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their groundbreaking work in predicting protein structures using AI. As AI becomes increasingly embedded in daily life, concerns about overreliance have grown. Tech leaders are raising alarms about the long-term effects of outsourcing thinking to machines. Earlier this week, billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban echoed similar concerns on social media, dividing users of large language models into two categories: those who use AI to learn everything, and those who use it so they don’t have to learn anything at all. Cuban has previously described AI models as "stupid" but likened them to "savants that remember everything"—powerful tools that lack true understanding. He warns against treating them as infallible sources of knowledge. At a June conference, Arthur Mensch, CEO of French AI startup Mistral, offered a similar caution. He argued that the greatest danger of AI isn’t its potential to surpass human intelligence or become uncontrollable, but rather that it could make people too comfortable, too dependent, and ultimately too lazy to think or act independently. The debate underscores a broader cultural shift: as AI tools grow more capable, the responsibility to use them wisely falls increasingly on individuals. The outcome—whether AI sharpens the mind or erodes it—may come down to a simple choice.