# TRC #712: AI Make Brain Dumb? + Mentalism Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-reality-check-509868/trc-712-ai-make-brain-dumb-mentalism Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-reality-check-509868/trc-712-ai-make-brain-dumb-mentalism.md Podcast: [The Reality Check](https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-reality-check-509868) Published: 2025-07-09T23:54:00+00:00 Episode link: https://therealitycheck.libsyn.com/trc-712-ai-make-brain-dumb-mentalism Audio file: https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/therealitycheck/TRC_712.mp3?dest-id=14610 Processing state: not_requested JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-reality-check-509868/episodes/trc-712-ai-make-brain-dumb-mentalism Duration seconds: 2793 ## Resource Is AI making us dumber? Darren looks into a recent study, which spawned some less than great press coverage, trying to assess where or not using LLMs is making us less intelligent. We didn't really come to very good conclusions because we've been using too much AI. Adam gives an overview of mentalism, inspired by some recent podcast appearances by Oz Pearlman which have gone viral and brought some mainstream attention to this practice. ## Actions - request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-reality-check-509868/episodes/trc-712-ai-make-brain-dumb-mentalism/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode. - read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-reality-check-509868/trc-712-ai-make-brain-dumb-mentalism.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource. A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed. ## Transcript Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.