A new study from Duke University cautions that applying AI in the workplace—such as Chatgpt, Claude, or Gemini—can quietly harm your reputation. Even if AI increases productivity, colleagues and managers tend to view users as lazy, less competent, and less self-sufficient.
Released in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), the Jessica Reif, Richard Larrick, and Jack Soll study involved more than 4,400 respondents. It reported a definite “social evaluation penalty” associated with AI use.
“Even if AI can be used to make people more productive, its usage has social costs,” the researchers stated.
Read more: Chatgpt Went Down – The Internet Freaked Out
In one experiment, individuals who fantasised about using AI thought others would criticise them more. In another, assessors rated AI users as less employable and more dispensable—particularly when the assessor did not use AI. This bias manifests in every age, function, and gender.
Managers who were not AI-savvy were less likely to hire applicants who used AI. But if a profession specially needed AI, the adverse effect dissipated—asserting that context is everything.
Surprisingly, heavy users of AI were less critical of others, implying that familiarity breeds contempt. Nonetheless, most workers keep their AI use a secret and have earned the label “secret cyborgs,” a nickname coined by Wharton professor Ethan Mollick.
The research reveals a difficult trade-off: AI makes you do your job better, but may lead others to view you worse.
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