Thinking with AI: How to use AI without losing your brain

Hosted by Sofia Pires, Fendi Tsim, Alina Gutoreva, and Jason Vu Nguyen

Wed, Jul 15, 2026

2:00 PM UTC (45 minutes)

Virtual (Zoom)

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What you'll learn

Why AI can quietly erode the skills you rely on most

What the research actually says about AI and cognitive offloading. and why it matters for how you work right now.

How to know when to use AI and when to think for yourself

A practical framework (SCAN) for deciding which tasks to hand over, which to share, and which to do without any AI help.

How to build a smarter working relationship with AI

The habits and techniques that turn AI into a thinking partner, not a replacement for your judgement.

Why this topic matters

Most professionals are using AI without considering its long-term implications. Research shows it can reduce critical thinking, create over-reliance, and quietly shrink the skills that make you good at your job. But avoiding it isn't the answer either. This session gives you a framework to use AI intentionally, so that it works for your brain, not against it.

You'll learn from

Sofia Pires

Skills Officer at The Alan Turing Institute

I have been researching the effects of AI in our thinking and learning for the past four years and leading training programmes for ten. I'm an award winning writer on the topics of AI, which I publish on my substack.

In my day to day job, I lead live trainings and workshops on different topics of AI, from Responsible AI, Cyber Security and Data Governance.

This session is an academic project where I am acting independently, not representing my employer.


Fendi Tsim

I am a behavioural scientist (PhD, Warwick Business School) and an independent researcher working at the intersection of cognitive psychology and AI-augmented decision-making. 

I am the co-creator of the SCAN framework, which helps people determine when to delegate tasks to AI, when to collaborate with it, and when to think things through alone.

I also co-founded BehSci Meets AI, a London-based community exploring how behavioural science and AI can be designed to strengthen, rather than replace, human judgment.


Alina Gutoreva

Assistant Professor of Cognitive Science, Kazakh-British Technical University

I am an Assistant Professor of Cognitive Science and Head of the AI Lab at Kazakh-British Technical University (KBTU), Almaty. My research is at the intersection of cognitive science, AI governance, and human-AI interaction. My work asks a question that is increasingly urgent for professionals everywhere: as we delegate more thinking to AI, what happens to our capacity to think for ourselves? I am a co-developer of the SCAN framework, a structured approach to scaffolding cognitive autonomy in AI-augmented environments. Beyond academia, I advise UNESCO and the United Nations on AI governance, have consulted Kazakhstan's Parliament on its National AI Law, and co-chairs the Cognitive Science subcommittee of the IEEE Global AIS Flourishing Initiative. I am also Research Lead for SANA-1, Central Asia's first all-female analog space mission.

Jason Vu Nguyen

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