What You Gain and What You Lose: A Risk/Benefit Framework for AI Use

AI agents are everywhere now—tools that can manage your email, execute research tasks, book appointments. But before we explore what AI agents can do for you, we need to understand what you're actually trading every time you use AI.In this Season 2 opener, I walk through the major trade-offs faculty face when using AI in research, education, and clinical work: efficiency versus depth, breadth versus expertise, automation versus agency, and convenience versus privacy. Using the same risk/benefit framework you apply to clinical decisions, I'll help you evaluate when AI use makes sense and when the trade-off isn't worth it.Understanding these fundamentals—especially around agency and privacy—becomes critical as AI takes on more autonomous roles. You're already skilled at risk/benefit analysis. You just need to apply it to a new domain.https://www.media.mit.edu/publications/your-brain-on-chatgpt/