Saying that LLM prevent independent thinking is like saying books prevent independent thinking. It depend how you use them.
There are no guardrails to LLMs. They remove friction from tasks that used to require critical thinking. We're constantly pressured into using them. I think only blaming the end-user is naive.
[0]: https://aeon.co/essays/our-crisis-is-not-loneliness-but-huma...
[1]: https://www.forbes.com/sites/danfitzpatrick/2025/02/26/chatg...