Ep. 14: Extending minds with generative AI

Much of the public conversation around AI centres on its outputs: what it can generate, how well it performs, what tasks it might take over. Those questions often obscure a more foundational shift that AI systems are becoming embedded in how people think - not just as occasional tools, but as part of the cognitive process itself.

A recent paper by Andy Clark (Nature Communications, May 2025) situates this shift within a broader cognitive history. Clark is best known for the “extended mind” hypothesis, which argues that human thinking routinely spans across brain, body, and environment. In this article, he applies that lens to generative AI, treating it not as a foreign agent but as a new layer in an already distributed system.

Key points:

* Human cognition has always relied on external tools; generative AI continues this pattern of extension.

* The impact of AI depends on how it is integrated into the thinking process - not just on what it can produce.

* Clark introduces the idea of “extended cognitive hygiene” - a new skillset for navigating AI-supported reasoning.

Source: Clark, A. (2025). Extending minds with Generative AI. Nature Communications, 16(1), 1-4. (Open Access)

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