The Verge

cognitive offloading minds not equipped to handle ai a hot dog in a bun with a mustard zigzag

Our minds aren’t equipped to handle AI

Benjamin Riley argues in The Verge that our minds are not equipped to handle AI, calling it a ‘cognitive hot dog’. We explain his case against the brain-as-computer model, what cognitive offloading means, the evidence from 26,811 Chinese pupils and 3.2 million maths problems, the Norway, New York and Los Angeles school restrictions, where the essay overreaches, and how businesses can protect their people’s thinking.

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New York Governor Kathy Hochul Thinks AI Should Be ‘Less Evil’

In a Decoder interview published 31 August 2026, New York Governor Kathy Hochul called AI “in one sense a necessary evil” and challenged the industry to “make it less evil”. This piece walks through what she actually said: the Executive Order 62 moratorium on hyperscale data centers of 50MW or more, the 30 applications that triggered it, St. Lawrence County’s one-reactor problem, the AI review of state regulations that saved 1.5 million hours, the 81 percent of likely-displaced jobs held by women, her Flock camera objections, the Meta teen-safety settlement, and what her “less evil” standard signals for businesses deploying AI.

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