Is AI Making Us Dumber, or Are We Doing It Ourselves Already?

The Gospel of Storytelling

“Sell a story, not a product.” It’s the marketing mantra of the 21st century. From soap to software, brands have been told the same thing: people don’t want your product, they want a narrative, a purpose, a solution. And sure, it sounds wise. Emotional resonance sells. People love stories. But let’s pause and consider—what if this narrative obsession is actually limiting us?

What if, in our quest to connect, we’ve begun to cage imagination?

The Screwdriver Problem

Imagine you’re selling a screwdriver. Instead of simply showing what it is and what it can do, you build a beautiful story around a specific use case: a rugged piece of hardened steel that allows you to join two pieces of wood together with a single screw—a noble tool with a singular heroic purpose, solving their problem.

And now you’ve just reduced it.

Because here’s the thing: that same screwdriver can be used to pry, to carve, to open lids, to punch holes, to create, to improvise. But by selling the story of “joining two planks,” you’ve inadvertently told people, “this is what it’s for.”

You’ve taught them not to think beyond the narrative.

The Real Risk with AI

Now take that same thinking and apply it to AI.

We’re being sold AI as a customer support agent, a blog writer, a personal assistant. And yes—those stories are comforting. They fit nicely into familiar business needs and everyday problems. But every time we wrap AI in a story, we also constrain it. We frame its use, and worse—we frame the user.

The message becomes: “Here’s the problem this tool solves for you. You don’t need to think beyond it.”

That’s dangerous.

Because AI isn’t a product with one purpose. It’s a catalytic tool—perhaps the catalytic tool of our age. Framing it within fixed use cases trains people to look at it passively, not curiously.

It conditions them to consume rather than create.

We’re Conditioning Ourselves into Mental Dependency

The danger isn’t that AI will make people dumber. The danger is that we’re already doing that to ourselves—by discouraging exploration. By replacing open-ended thinking with neatly wrapped narratives.

We’re feeding people pre-chewed ideas instead of giving them raw ingredients. We’re selling answers, not questions.

And when people stop asking questions, they stop imagining.

AI Should Be Framed as a Spark, Not a Story

Let’s reframe. What if we stop selling AI as a solution to a specific issue and start offering it as a space for exploration?

What if we treat AI like a blank canvas instead of a paint-by-numbers kit?

We need to invite people to imagine. To tinker. To break the mold. Because the true value of AI isn’t in the stories we craft for it—but in the stories it allows us to write for ourselves.

Let’s stop selling screwdrivers as screw-solvers. Let’s show people they can build entire worlds with them.

The problem isn’t AI. It’s our shrinking imagination. And that’s still something we can change—if we choose to.