Working Papers
The Augmentation Trap: AI Productivity and the Cost of Cognitive Offloading
May 15, 2026
- Sinan Aral | Director, MIT IDE; Professor, MIT Sloan School of Management
- Michael Caosun | Ph.D. Candidate
Authors develop a dynamic model in which a decision-maker chooses AI usage intensity for a worker over time, trading immediate productivity against the erosion of worker skill, testing when decision-makers opt for AI use and the productivity of workers as a result.