Seems like a real lack of nuance in these types of conversations. Personally I feel like AI has both directly and indirectly helped me improve my intelligence. Directly by serving as an instantaneous resource for asking questions (something Google doesn’t do well anymore), making it easier to find learning materials, and easily reorganizing information into formats more amenable to learning. Indirectly by making it easier to create learning assets like images, which are useful for applying the picture superiority effect, visualizing information, etc.

At the end of the day, it is a tool and it depends on how you use it. It may destroy the research ability of the average person, but for the power user it is an intelligence accelerator IMO.