No. As a matter of fact there are several studies proving a decrease in logical abilities and critical thinking. From my own experience these people are also often painfully incorrect with absolute confidence what they're saying is actually correct.

do you experience an inner monologue? (do you "hear" a "voiceover" of your thoughts?)

Prior to ai, when in the history of humanity has any human had the ability to have 24/7 instant, actionable feedback on their critical thinking or argumentation?

That feedback on your arguments would come from other people. It would reflect the lives and minds of your friends, family, and neighbors instead of some amalgam of text scraped from the internet. It would come from perspectives and capacities of real people and would not be output from a machine set up to keep you responding to its output as long as possible.

I think both possibilities are likely, and not mutually exclusive.

You're likely to improve your forensic skills with basic practice, but you're also likely to have a distorted view of your capacities.

The lack of awareness here is off the charts. Jesus Christ...

No.

Personally I've found that chatbots (specifically ChatGPT and Claude) are wrong more often than people realize. For a while I was spending a lot of time chatting with AI's about all sorts of topics and I noticed in areas where I had expertise the information provided by the AI was wrong alarmingly often. Even exploring topics I know enough about to stand in for an expert when none is available, it still left a lot to be desired. Try it yourself, go as deep as you can with ChatGPT on a subject you know a lot about, it's wrong often enough it casts doubt on pretty much anything it says. And if you can't trust it, it's not a good interlocutor.

There is also the sycophant problem you alluded to. They really go out of their way to give you what you want and if you're looking for validation about your ideas or skills it will give it to you. They will concede points and acknowledge fault, even when they're right with a minimal amount of pushback.

Honestly if you want to expand your cognitive abilities ask your philosophy professor for a reading list. There are also a couple states of mind you can get yourself into that are quiet useful for sharpening your brain meat. One is assessment. Most people don't realize they're doing it but sort of the default mode for people is to observe something briefing and then form a judgement about a situation. If you instead continue observing without forming any conclusions it will stimulate a lot of cognitive grown. Try it the next time you're someplace crowded. Pick a person and watch them surreptitiously. Don't try to guess anything about them and only draw conclusions about what you actually observe. It takes a bit of getting used to but it's a great skill to have and is directly related to logic and critical thinking. The other one is more fun. There is probably a name for it but I call it playful curiosity. Artists use it all the time, but it's the idea of getting yourself into a playful mood and letting your curiosity drive. It works best with something that involves trial and error and it may not seem directly useful, but just playing around experimenting with something will let you make new connections you'd never have considered before.

turn this meme upside down and you have what ai does to the brain

Can talking with a yesman improve those? Probably not, they're there to stroke your ego. You probably need someone who can definitely debate on stuff that sit on grey area and not black and white, and also capable of changing their own opinion.

Arguing with yourself in the mirror can improve your rhetoric. As could pretending that a random roll of polyhedral dice is agreement or disagreement. But either can also reinforce bad habits or not buttress good ones.

What sets LLM chatbots apart is that it's easier to pretend. Which can be a beneficial thing depending on where you are in your growth, or it can be a very bad thing if you lack sufficient humility and self-awareness to treat the mindless software as no more than it is.

I'm with the AP on this, by the way. Don't attribute cognitive actions to software. No chatbot can trick anyone. Humans use them to trick humans, either other humans or ourselves.

Interesting that your discussions seem to center around philosophy.

Talking to people who talk to AI a lot, I notice they have a real information processing problem. That is, they can say something wrong, and I will point them to a study proving it, and instead of reading the study, or engaging with the subject at all, will come up with a superficial reason why the study must be flawed (often accounted for in the study), and they sort of rhetorically sit and smile, wagging their tails, expecting a treat.

When you're debating philosophy, you can just keep spinning interesting sentences back and forth and it might be simulating something, but you're really playing tennis without a net. Everything is can be an interminable argument with no conclusions.

If you really want to test your mettle, trying arguing something that requires understanding reality or research on some level.

I don't care much for "debate" though. I think I've "won" if I've learned something new or see things differently than when I started.

I'm also little worried that you've spent all this time talking to AI and haven't seemed to pick up on how fundamentally flawed it as a thinking machine. I don´t know how to counsel you on breaking that illusion.

Can working with clay improve your skills?

Yes, but only to a certain extent. And especially if you want to be a potter, it will be useful for you.

The clay offers resistance to your hands, and that makes them stronger with more practice. With more practice, your hands will develop a good feel for the clay and become increasingly adept at working with it.

But clay can’t teach you; it can only help you practice. You’ll “only” be a skilled potter.

If you want to become a master potter, you’ll need much more than just clay. You’ll need another master potter who will take the time to teach you all the craftsmanship that clay cannot teach you. You’ll study the work of many other master potters if you want to become a truly great master. Finally, you’ll also draw on all your creativity and continue to hone your creative skills if you want to become a true artist in pottery.