Reflection on Klöpping × Scherder by Simon Buil (Data Analyst at Online Dialogue)

AI affects how we learn, work and think, but will it ultimately make us smarter or dumber? During a debate at the DeLaMar Theater, the audience went Alexander Klöpping and Erik Scherder about this. Two experts with two completely different perspectives. Our data analyst Simon Buil was there and provides a reflection on the four themes that took center stage.

1. Laziness in education and the impact on the brain

Erik Scherder kicked off with a mini-hearing lecture on what happens when we allow too much convenience.
According to him, “lazy” behavior, for example having AI solve tasks, leads to:

• impaired cognition
  
• more negative emotions
  
• An increased risk of various mental and physical complaints
  

In short: we must continue to make an effort, otherwise the brain deteriorates.

Klöpping takes a very different view. According to him, the problem does not lie with the student, but with education that does not move with you. He outlined a future in which every student has a personal robot teacher, making learning actually richer.

How do we see this at Online Dialogue:
We also recognize the tension between ease and effort in organizations. Tools like AI can help tremendously, but only if people keep thinking critically and understand when to deploy AI and when not to. In experimentation, this remains essential: test, validate and keep learning.

2. AI only helps the ‘happy few’ or doesn't it?

Scherder begins the second proposition firmly: AI threatens mainly to help people who are already digitally proficient. Those who are less tech-savy will lose connection to the job market.

His concern: If you don't learn to use AI, there will soon be no chance in the job market.

Klöpping totally understands what Scherder is alluding to, but sees it just a bit rosier. Just as everyone once had to learn to work with e-mail, Excel and Drive, AI will simply become the next basic skill. Not everyone will embrace it at once, but eventually it will become the new normal.

From Online Dialogue:
New technology does not automatically increase the gap but it does if organizations do not pay attention to it. Teams must learn to work with AI, practice, make mistakes and discover where it adds value.

This is exactly why we at OD believe in that by testing you discover what works, for whom, and what the real impact is on behavior.

3. Brainrot: is AI making media even more addictive?

A theme that evoked recognition from the audience. Scherder argued that AI-generated videos are becoming ultimately addictive: fast, stimulating, endless. Some young people already spend 7 hours a day on TikTok; AI, he said, will only make that worse.

Klöpping thinks that is too short of the mark. According to him, the revenue model of platforms is the real problem. Before AI, Instagram and TikTok were also filled with brainrot content. AI may be exacerbating it, but the system is driving it.

Reflection from Online Dialogue:
Creating online content has become a lot easier with AI. With one prompt, a video or image is ready in minutes. But the real question is: Does this content work for your users?

Currently, the quality of many AI-generated videos is still low. With that, it can damage your reputation as easily as it improves it. At the same time, the expectation is that this technology is rapidly improving and thus becoming more useful.

4. Human touch and social connection remain crucial

In the fourth theme, Scherder again emphasized the importance of human proximity.
Our brains flourish by:

• real touch
  
• physical presence
  
• personal conversations
  

AI, he says, cannot replace that, and he sees many risks in the increasing sizes of synthetic relationships as a result.

Klöpping does not deny that, but sees AI as complementary. Some people are already lonely. For them, AI can be supportive, not as a replacement for humans, but as an extra layer of interaction.

Reflection from Online Dialogue:
Technology can do a lot, but humanity remains central. Even digital products are ultimately about trust, empathy and behavior. As Lotte Cornelissen emphasized during Dialogue Thursday: you can only use technology meaningfully if you understand the behavior it affects. Without that understanding, you build features faster than you solve problems.

Simon's conclusion

For Simon, the debate did not feel like an either/or discussion.
He agreed with Scherder that:

• we need to stay active
  
• need to keep thinking critically
  
• real social connection remains essential

But he also recognized himself in Klöping's perspective: AI is a new tool that we are still using poorly. Its potential is enormous if we learn how to deploy it. And that's exactly the point: AI doesn't make us dumber or smarter. How we use it determines the outcome. Experimentation helps with this: it gives organizations the space to deploy technology responsibly, smartly and humanely, step by step, using real behavioral data as a guide.

Book tips:

• Erik Scherder - Rather lazy than tired
• Thijs Launspach - Growing up smartphone-free (edited by Alexander Klöpping)
• Ethan Mollick - Co-intelligence (edited by Alexander Klöpping)