# Transcript: Brains & Bots: Evolving the Future of Intelligence Together **Date:** March 15, 2026 · 10:30 PM **Session:** [Brains & Bots: Evolving the Future of Intelligence Together](/sessions/2026-03-15/pp1162578-brains-bots-evolving-the-future-of-intelligence-together) ## Summary This panel explored 'adaptive intelligence' — the co-evolution of human cognition and AI. A cognitive neuroscientist, near futurist, and AI transformation expert discussed how the brain physically adapts through learning, why emotion and meaning-making remain uniquely human superpowers, and how organizations can use AI for cognitive gain rather than cognitive atrophy. ## Topics `cognitive neuroscience` · `adaptive intelligence` · `human-ai collaboration` · `agentic ai` · `spatial computing` · `cognitive atrophy` · `brain science` · `ai leadership` ## Key Takeaways 1. Workers who over-trust AI show decreased critical thinking — the key is using AI as a collaborative thinking partner that prompts you back, not a one-way oracle. 2. The brain operates on 'use it or lose it' — teams need 'flight simulators' (deliberate practice without AI) to maintain cognitive skills alongside AI automation. 3. Focus AI adoption on your highest-time activities first (usually communication and meetings), not on flashy but infrequent use cases. 4. AI makes you more capable, not just more efficient — the competitive advantage goes to those who use freed capacity to create more value, not just save resources. 5. Brains and bots aren't competing or collaborating — they're co-evolving, and humans have agency in shaping how that co-evolution unfolds. ## Full Transcript Welcome to Brains and Bots at South by Southwest. Moderator Julissa Hermosillo introduced the panel: Dr. Heather Collins, a cognitive neuroscientist studying how the brain learns and adapts; Neil Reddy, a near futurist working at the intersection of AI, spatial computing, and leadership; and Dan Chupka, a product management leader with experience at Google, McKinsey, and Atlassian who helps organizations navigate AI transformation. Dr. Collins explained the neuroscience of adaptive learning. The brain contains billions of neurons firing electrochemical signals through networks. When we engage in adaptive learning, we update these networks to reflect current demands. Weak connections become strong information superhighways, while unused pathways are pruned. This is the biological foundation of how humans co-evolve with AI tools. Neil Reddy expanded the concept to spatial computing, where computers are learning to understand the physical three-dimensional world we inhabit. Historically, computing has been confined to 2D screens, but AI is accelerating the ability of software to model and simulate physics-accurate environments. This means adaptive intelligence applies not just to our brains but also to the software-based technologies sensing our physical world. Dan Chupka offered practical workplace advice: instead of brainstorming cool AI uses, figure out what you spend most of your time doing, then apply AI there. Most people spend most of their time in communication — meetings, email, chat, phone calls. The teams accelerating their AI journey are using AI tools to spread information more surgically, not more rapidly, keeping information in retrievable databases instead of having meetings just because it's Tuesday. A show of hands revealed about 75% of the audience had used AI in the last hour. When asked whether AI makes them more anxious or more capable, nearly 80% said both. The panel discussed a Microsoft and Carnegie Mellon study showing that workers who believed their AI capability was strong actually applied less critical thinking — suggesting the issue is not the LLM itself but our relationship with it. Dr. Collins explained the brain's superpowers that AI lacks. First, meaning-making: our brains are meaning-making machines that evaluate information in the context of our entire life experience. Second, emotion: the amygdala (emotion center) sits next to the hippocampus (learning and memory center), making emotion a cognition amplifier that AI lacks. Third, flexible attention: we shift and reallocate focus intelligently based on experience, emotional context, and meaning. Neil Reddy cited Anthropic's Economic Index showing a direct correlation between the sophistication of human prompts and the sophistication of Claude's responses. This motivates us to show up with our A-game when engaging with AI, bringing clear intention and nuanced context, which develops our own cognitive capacity rather than diminishing it. The panel discussed an MIT study on cognitive debt: EEG scans of people using ChatGPT showed lower brain engagement across all 32 regions, and when the tool was removed, users were unable to recover their previous level of cognitive function. Dr. Collins emphasized the brain operates on 'use it or lose it' — memory capacity shrinks, and prefrontal cortex activity decreases, affecting reasoning, creativity, innovation, and problem-solving. Dan Chupka offered a powerful analogy: airline pilots don't fly planes anymore — autopilot does everything. But pilots still exist and remain skilled because they spend nine hours a month in flight simulators. Every team needs 'flight simulators' paired with their AI tools to maintain cognitive skills. The key is always creating a first draft yourself before asking AI to evaluate and elevate it. On agentic AI, Neil described the shift from AI as tool to AI as participant. The concept of orchestration — borrowed from symphony conducting — means providing moment-to-moment guidance based on shared context rather than issuing task-level commands. Dan warned about reliability: even with 99.9% accuracy across 35,000 daily decisions, that's still 35 mistakes per day. The new job is finding needles in haystacks — reviewing what AI did on your behalf and identifying what needs to be redone. In a lightning round, each panelist named one human skill to protect: Dr. Collins chose curiosity, Neil chose attention and intentionality, and Dan chose judgment and personal taste. For AI capabilities to practice this year: Dr. Collins recommended using AI as a collaborative thinking partner that prompts you back and challenges your assumptions. Neil emphasized voice-based thought partnership and co-creation with LLMs. Dan suggested recording everything and getting AI feedback on how to improve. The session concluded with the key insight: the question isn't whether brains and bots are competing or collaborating — they are co-evolving. Humans have agency in shaping how this co-evolution unfolds. We are not bystanders in this story. --- *Source: stt · Language: en · Model: claude-opus-4-6* [← Back to session](/sessions/2026-03-15/pp1162578-brains-bots-evolving-the-future-of-intelligence-together)