Lightning Talks: Is AI Rotting Our Brains?

Young AI Leaders Austria’s first lightning talks edition asked a sharp question—“Is AI rotting our brains?”—and showed how tricky that question really is.

What happened

Speakers tackled AI from multiple angles: René Werner (JKU Institute for Sociology) on AI and educational inequality; Raphael Suchomel (University of Applied Sciences Upper Austria) on “Thinking is optional”; Oleg Lesota (JKU Institute of Computational Perception) on “Better Users for Better Tools”; and Navid Ghaderian on whether AI and the human brain point to gradual evolution or radical rupture.

Themes ranged from “peaks and valleys” of access to AI knowledge, to the hidden power of recommender systems, to AI as both technological progression and societal turning point. The event was organised with support from neuron.ai Austria and JKU – LIT Open Innovation Center.

Why it matters

Instead of easy answers, the evening left better questions: who benefits, who gets left behind, and how consciously we choose to use these tools. That reflective muscle is part of AI literacy too.