Are You Using AI — or Is AI Using You?

Are You Using AI — or Is AI Using You?

There’s a quiet divide forming in how people work with AI, and it has nothing to do with tools, models, or prompts.

It’s about agency.

Right now, most people are doing this:

• Prompt AI

• Wait for an answer

• Accept it (or tweak it)

• Move on

That feels productive.

It looks efficient.

But cognitively, something dangerous is happening.

They’re outsourcing thinking.

Two Ways to Relate to AI

1. Reactive AI (Cognitive Outsourcing)

You ask AI what to do.

You let it define the solution space.

You don’t really know what “right” looks like — you recognize it after the fact.

This creates dependence, not capability.

2. Directive AI (Cognitive Amplification)

You already know the outcome space.

You define constraints first.

You know what good architecture, logic, or decisions look like before you start.

AI doesn’t tell you what to do.

It accelerates what you already understand.

That difference is everything.

This Isn’t About Power — It’s About Agency

I don’t love the old “master/slave” language in engineering — but the reality it points to is real.

Either:

• You direct intelligence, or

• You defer to it

If you’re just prompting AI and accepting outputs, AI is leading the thinking.

If you’re programming AI — defining intent, constraints, and outcomes — you’re leading.

That’s not dominance.

That’s responsibility.

Learn → Teach → Master Still Applies (Especially Now)

This framework didn’t break in the AI era — it became unavoidable.

• Learn: You explore and absorb patterns

• Teach: You’re forced to clarify and formalize

• Master: You develop judgment — you know instantly when something is wrong

Mastery is the moment you stop being impressed by outputs and start evaluating them.

AI punishes people who try to skip this progression.

The Real Skill: Knowing the Outcome Before You Begin

Here’s the line most people miss:

If you don’t know what “good” looks like,

AI will happily invent it for you —

and you won’t know when it’s wrong.

That’s not intelligence.

That’s roulette.

The Future Belongs to Directors, Not Askers

The most valuable people in the AI era won’t be “great prompt engineers.”

They’ll be:

• Architects of intent

• Designers of constraints

• Governors of systems

• Stewards of institutional memory

They won’t ask AI what to think.

They’ll tell it what thinking is allowed.

Final thought:

AI won’t replace humans.

But humans who surrender cognitive agency to AI will quietly replace themselves.

The real divide isn’t technical.

It’s cognitive.

And every prompt is a choice.