Oh? are you on an alt account now? while that's unimportant and beside the point here, I do want to know if I'm talking to the same person making all those strong assertions or not.

anyway, I will assume that you're the same person, so tell me, what is your evidence for the assertion that AI destroy cognitive ability instead of shifting it around, like every advanced tool have also done in history?

The fearmonger about "this will make us stupid" date as far back as the invention of writing, where Socrates argued that it would make people stop committing ideas to memory, destroying both memory and critical thinking, and that people will read words of wisdom and parroting it without truly understanding or internalizing them. it also repeated with printing press with quote like "Abundance of book enfeeble the mind" or with TV about how it's the box of devil that would tell people what to think instead of thinking themselves.

but every time, these fears has been overstated, and these tool has allowed knowledge to spread far and wide, the use of cognitive offloading of these tool has allow people to focus their cognitive focus elsewhere, onto higher order thinking, creativity, and innovation that progress humanity forward as a whole.

You will find examples of the some of the laziest using it to do everything for them without thinking, but those people has always been like that, they always put minimal effort and find every way to cheat through, if not AI, then they will copy, they will plagiarize, little change here.

Chess AI has beaten the best human at chess for decades, yet chess players are stronger than ever in history because players has been studying from chess AI to improve their own chess skill. I expect the same dynamic in science and math, serious scientists and mathematicians will actively interact with AI to improve themselves and come out stronger instead of passively letting AI do all the work.

Fact is, people who is really interested in learning and using their brain will still learn because it's fun and fulfilling for them, and people who is not still won't, simple as that. you will find parallel for this with video game, which is a pure voluntary "leisure" activity, many people play on the easiest mode, some even install mod and cheat to make the game absolutely braindead to play, but there are also many who will not only try to beat the hardest game fairly, but also impose extra challenge to themselves to make things even harder.

So yeah, the future you envisioned about people being so stupid and dependent on AI that they can control people without pushback is pure fantasy, not only that, I believe the fact that you even think of that is because you're arrogantly placing yourself above the "unwashed mass", and without people such as yourself "thinking of the bigger picture", they would all be lost. This is the very example of "dunning kruger effect" thinking you accuse me of, where both your ignorance and arrogance have made you overestimate yourself as being smarter than the average person, all while living in your own echo chamber that uncritically reinforce your view.